Why Kroger went Kaput: More Tales from the Shelves

Friday night after Jo's CD release party I went to Bellevue Kroger to pick something up for Saturday (e.g., Recovery Day). The parking lot was filled to the brim with police cruisers and DARE SUVs. Uh-oh, I thought, some wack job tried to rob the till. Um, no. The Kroger computers were down. The police showed up en masse to prevent a potential shopping riot.

Next, I zipped over to the Covington Kroger at 15th & Madison (my friend Dave calls this store the Kroger That Kroger Forgot, but they do have a lot of the basics). They too, were closed, but no police cruisers were in sight. Just one random guy in the parking lot that chatted with me for a moment and a young cashier hanging out with her boyfriend. Same network problems. So what happened to Northern Kentucky Kroger stores last night? Actually, "it" happened to Krogers everywhere, as all Kroger stores were closed from approximately 10 to 2 EST last night.

Kroger, in an attempt to remove the (potentially) tainted Eukanuba pet food from its shelves, accidentally shut down the whole system. When cashiers tried to ring up sales, they received some kind of "no sale" or "not on sale" message, so they finally gave up the ghost and shut down for several hours while HQ sorted things out.

In case you were wondering.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The Kroger That Kroger Forgot?

That's funny!

Do they have a lot more private label items than the other store? It might be one of their 'value/budget' store...
Lisa said…
I have told the cashiers that comment too, and they just giggled. The reason I call them that is they don't have all lanes open from 4-6 (supposedly a Kroger guarantee) and until recently they didn't have a proper meat section. If you wanted to buy a roast and have it cut up, they'd take it into a backroom and do it (seriously).

Also, they close relatively early, which is a shock when you're spoiled by the 24/7 stores. The parking lot backs up to an old motel/rooming house and in good weather, a number of people sitting on their porches will wave and call out to you when you park your car and walk in... It's quite a different experience from visiting other Kroger stores.

I think it is just a very old Kroger and they suffer from being understaffed and/or have a hard time keeping employees on staff. The people that work there are very nice, though.
AC said…
The Kroger That Kroger Forgot?

That's funny!

Do they have a lot more private label items than the other store? It might be one of their 'value/budget' store...

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