Im just going to say this and let everyone else respond. Weve had department managers quit over End to End and a lot of the nonsense that they felt went along with it. Weve had different people come in and grade us differently on the same things, which means there is no consistency as to how they conduct their audits. Just when you think you have everything perfect and by the book, they will still find something wrong and many times, the things they count against us are things we have no control over, such as staffing issues. Ill admit that departments can always improve, but when we get needled for minor things by one auditor and given a pass for those same things by another auditor, it seems counterproductive. It is also counterproductive to lose many of your best staff members because they are fed up with how the process works and the unfair treatment they feel they get because of a low score. Which, by the way, reminds me, what kinds of scores are you guys averaging each time (I promise I wont criticize)? Weve gotten 6s, 7s, and 8s. 9s are harder to come by, but it also depends on whos doing the audit. Ive heard of lower scores and whole districts who are struggling with it. I have yet to hear of a store or department getting CONSISTENT 10s, but I could be wrong.
In any case, what are you seeing in your stores? What frustrates you most about End to End? Feel free to go off on anything and everything regarding this topic, because I dont hear it talked about nearly enough!
What's End to End? I've been with Kroger for over 35 years working in the bakery department. It was fine in the beginning when all they cared about was sales. It didn't matter how you got them. All decisions about how much of what product to put out was left up to the people working in the department. Of course naturally you still had to cover sales, but the amount of product you produced and where you put it was up to you. We also didn't have them constantly adding out product we didn't order. You only had to do two scans each day: outdates and lows and holes. We also weren't graded on stupid stuff every day like they do now. The company is run by people who don't know what they're doing and by people who don't communicate with each other. It started 15 years ago with Key Retailing but ever since they got their new toy (the Zebra), all they can do is come up with more and more useless things to do with it.
I stepped down in hours and due to lack of staff the departments grads dropped a couple letters. They don't give a sh--it and just tell us to work harder. Well that exhausted me, shut me down and I'm going back to 4 days a week now. I frankly don't care any more and company has proven multiple times they could care less about me and have told me I'm a replaceable number with someone minimum wage off the streets. I've seen it happen with many coworkers quit, leave, fire then be replaced <72 hrs later with a minimum wage, zero experienced nobody off the streets.
My store has been on "Fresh Beginnings" since the beginning.
The beginning of what? Time? Your Kroger career? Since your store was built? Since Kroger has been around? Kroger has come up with so many programs over the years, I don't even bother learning about them. I know someone who does business with several stores like Kroger, Walmart, Target, etc. and he said out of all them Kroger is the worst one to work with. He said they are the most incompetent disorganized company he's ever worked with.
Well, I was specifically talking about produce, but in general, the store walks. Also, the EcoLab inspections! On occasion, weve had three End To End walks in one week! Ive heard that if you get a lower score than a 9, expect more of those walks. How many of you know about the signs at the entrance that change from red to yellow to green, depending on your End To End score? What scores are you consistently getting? Lets just say I heard of one department that got a 0 score after the department manager quit, leaving the department in disarray and the employees cant get along with each other now enough to help get the department back on track. Are you guys seeing the same things? Or are your stores making the grade? Have you gotten a lower score after a manager left or stepped down? Have you gotten a better score after a new employee was hired? Do you have the same person doing the audits every time or have you had the district manager come in and do them? What have those walks been like? Ive also heard from former employees who went to work at other retail outlets tell me how much more positive and less stressful THEIR store walks were, compared to ours! Everyone seems happier doing them everywhere else, except for Kroger. Funny how that is
In any case, Id love to hear your store walk stories.
