Kroger — Local services in Allen

Sure Krogers offers competitive pricing, however Ethnic buyers be ware... ever since Krogers updated it's floor plans and incorporated the use of the convenient "scan to go" handscanners, I find you lose your privacy. To see what I mean, grab a "scan and go" hand-held scanner. You are immediately whisked to Soviet Russia. During your entire Krogers shopping experience, you and your family are subjected to KGB-style surveillance. Stockers rush from the back to "straighten" crooked chips bags. Manager is out with his second in command walking with a cart and black crates amongst the checkouts. A miscellaneous female character begins shadowing down on the opposite end. Going down the main thoroughfare from produce to dairy with a similar cart and black crates setup. She peers down isles announcing in an annoying voice "chicken sales of the day". You notice her as you pick up toilet paper, and then see her again announcing sales as you pick up frozen entrees, and then while picking up some cheese... wth? At the self checkout, the very large and brutish cashier with a baby face appears at your cart. Former Soviet boxing champ? He begins to innocuously scan your items with his scanner as you scan the "scan and go" bar code below the self checkout monitor. Evidently they don't trust your scanning abilities. Baby face Boris then cancels your order on his kiosk. Trying to force you to rescan each item agaim. Luckily the "scan and go" still maintains your scans until you pay. Nice try,...

Unfortunately for this location, a brand new, spotlessly clean HEB opened across the street. Because of the competition, the store got a small makeover and the staff clearly has been instructed to be more friendly (until HEB was near opening, that was not the case), which is an improvement.

Even with the changes, the store still pales in comparison. The quality of the produce in the produce department has not improved -- the quality is still below average and the section is half the size of HEB's. The store is still cluttered .... especially in the front with bins of sales items. The carts are 5 years pass their prime -- some have rust, the wheels lock up or are misaligned, etc.

The other problem is that often the only choice is self-checkout...and half of them are closed a good portion of the day. If there is a lane with a cashier, often there is only one lane. So, it can be time consuming to check out and pay for any groceries since you have to wait. By contrast, despite a perpetually full parking lot and a much larger store, you can get in an out of the HEB across the street pretty quickly without having to wait long to check out between their number of self-checkout stations or a fairly large number of stations with cashiers...

Edit: you would think with HEB coming in across the street that they would be doing everything they can to make their customer experience good. But with these clip and save coupons and their really terrible internet service... What's up with that? I stood there for 10 minutes trying to get their internet to work so I could clip and save a stupid coupon. Also, my husband and I were walking up to the self check stand area and the young lady with the ponytail was at one of the self-checkout stands in that same area, assisting another customer, looked up at us and said in a very rude manner, "This area is closed, you need to go to the other side. That's why no one is in line over here"...... There wasn't anyone in line anywhere and there were two lights on indicating that at least two of the check areas were open... There was no need for her rudeness. We hadn't even said, asked, or looked at her and that's the treatment she gave us.

We started shopping here years ago because they had awesome produce, however; over the years the produce section has disappointingly gone way downhill. We now drive out of our way to whole foods or market Street for our produce and most of our...