It’s me…writing about Kroger (our local grocery) again. Some of you already know my thoughts about Kroger due to what I have written in the past about my frustration over the remodels near us. And then more thoughts after the remodel. And I’m always happy to spread the savings joy when Kroger does great things like the Halloween candy sale.
The truth is I shop at Kroger for probably 60% of our groceries. I have nothing against them overall, I just can’t stand to go into the one next to my house. They fail me every time. I love three of the “nearby” Krogers, but 15-20 minutes in the car would not be my first choice when there is one literally 3 minutes from my house! I digress.
Some of you saw that last week I snagged an invitation to a Kroger social media event. It was very well done. Some of you already saw the press release, news or newest Kroger ad regarding the recent decision to end double couponing and reduce more prices.
Here is what else I learned at the event:
Kroger is not stopping the double coupons just to save money. In fact, they are taking those savings and adding more money to it (a multi-million dollar investment) to do more every day low prices. And actually, double-couponers are a tiny percentage of their sales.
Theme sales such as Mega Sales and 10 for 10 are staying.
Kroger will still send you awesome customized coupons in the mail.
Fuel rewards and promotions are still happening (watch for a Valentine’s Gift Card promotion).
Community rewards will continue.
I didn’t need a grocery-restock this weekend, so I finally headed to Kroger today for a few of the necessities (milk and eggs). I had the new ad with me and was a bit curious to see if I saw any changes.
Mistake #1 – I took all of the kids since I only needed 5 items.
Mistake #2 – I went to the Kroger closest to our house.
As always, they failed me. Not once (eggs), but twice (romaine). And so I waited 2 hours to write this post so it wouldn’t seem like I was screaming at you.
Here’s what I noticed:
The new blue signs I saw at the Kroger last week (pictured above) were EVERYWHERE in my store. Almost in the way type of EVERYWHERE. And the employees (which seemed to TRIPLE) are all in new bright blue shirts that scream “Glad YOU are here.” Seriously, that’s what is printed on them. However, not one of them greeted me, said hello when eye contact was made, or offered to help me when it was obvious I was looking for something.
I wanted Baby Romaine. Out of stock. It generally is 50% of the time.
I wanted the newly-priced $1.99 Simple Truth Brown eggs. Out of stock.
And for the record, the cheese I was promised last May, is still not in stock.
But milk was $1.99 so that made me happy.
And the Simple Truth section seemed much, much bigger and visual.
Overall, I’m glad to see what Kroger is doing with pricing. Coupons drive me crazy. I just need to go to another Kroger and stop running into “mine” even for the necessities. Just driving by it makes my blood boil.
Do I hate Kroger? Not at all.
Do I wish I lived closer to a different one? Yes.
Will I continue to shop at “mine”? {sigh} Yes.
Will I continue to drive 15 minutes for Boar’s Head? {double sigh} Yes.
Will I still frequent Meijer for the items Kroger won’t carry? Yes.
Do I still have favorites at Trader Joe’s? Yes.
Will I go to Costco to stock-up? Yes.
Do I find service 1000000000 times better at Whole Foods? No doubt.
Do I wish they’d just tear down my Kroger and start over?
A girl can dream.
*** As a parting gift at the social media event, Kroger gave me a bag of Simple Truth items to try! I can’t wait to let you know how they are. We sampled some items at the meeting and YUM! Kroger also gave out gift cards!! Come back later this week to enter a Kroger give-away.
We do 98% of our shopping at Kroger. We have a son with peanut and treenut allergies and they carry A LOT more products, especially generics that he can have. Love Kroger chocolate chips. I cut coupons …then leave them at home! This may be a much better deal for me! We love the Kroger brands which save us $$. Oh, I am between two Kroger’s …one is awesome…one is Not!