I've heard rummors that requesting days off too often can get you into trouble. If this is true than how come others you work with reguest the same days off every week and get them with no consiqence?
You can select 2 days a week that you are unavailable to work. therefore the people who keep getting the same days off probably have put in on their availability schedule that they can't work those days. fill one out and you can get the same benefits. you can request as many days as you want off, you'll just end up pissing off whoever rights your schedule.
Kroger is a gang. Think of your need for time off is a hostage. If they think they can rely on you to do what they want even if they won't say what they want and keep your mouth shut you could get into a more favorable position with them.
Holidays are black out days. Seniority also plays a a role in your request off days. The more seniority you have the better.
At larger stores it isn't uncommon to have multiple people with like 15+ yrs with the company and the lowest seniority individual is like 8 yrs with company. So unless someone moves, quits or is fired you're sort of stuck at the bottom. I kept having that issue at high volume stores.
If your store is denying requests left and right talk to your union steward. They'll put an end to it. One of my locations I worked at started doing what you said and I called the union rep. They came in and "talked" to the manager about it. As multiple people ended up calling about the issue.
I also left another location because they refused to listen to schedule requests and days off. I started having my medical maintence needs turn into emergency room visits and that's when I decided it was time to leave.
If your store is less than skeleton crew yes they can write the schedule to allow the business to operate to the needs of the company. This is literally a rule in your union hand book under scheduling pratices.
I highly suggest that you go to ufcw and look up your contract for scheduling practices. If you feel they have violated one of the rules please contact your union rep. If your store is non union sorry they can do what ever the hell they want.