Kroger — Local services in Columbus

I feel almost disheartened to even have to write a review about my favorite Kroger location, but it has gone into a downward spiral since last year. Almost all the employees and the red vest shift leaders are awesome people, several of my friends actually work here, however there seems to be some shift in the way management has been treating both the store and the employees within the last year. Several times, my friends that work there have mentioned that they have been written up for either doing more work than they normally do, thus causing management, to [quote] "write the said employees for making other employees look bad." One friend of mine whom is a cashier, got written up for not scanning enough produce tags, however she was noted to having such great human connection with all sorts of customers that she actually had people that shopped there just to go through her own check lane [from people her age to old timers]. Why would a company be so afraid or mad if a cashier brought a lot of traffic to the store. Oh, that's right, people aren't supposed to some despotic run grocery store for one cashier, they are supposed to go to the store because of brand recognition.

The pharmacy is nearly perfect, however, Gy [pharmacy tech] has given me and several other customers the creeps, everything seems to be a race issue with him [a phrase I don't even like using-but this behavior should be pointed out as Gy has an, "everyone is out to get him" vibe-I've tried being nice to this guy on several visits and still the same drone out attitude]. However, Doc, Kayla and everyone else are so nice and have such a great human connection they are people you would swear were your best friends from high school.

When they changed the health food section and merged it with the regular isles, I think that was not a good move, especially for the local clientele who can simply jog down the street to Giant Eagle find what they need even at a higher price than having to dig through the isles to find what they need. On that note, almost every third item is either empty or one or two facings.

Lastly, it seems the actual "white shirt" office management are completely out of touch with reality and take everything any of the employees say as a threat. Most of these managers I wouldn't even have a cold one with or let into my home. Not even the red vest shift managers tend to know who is actually in charge. There is a fairly new manager who's name is pronounced, "Mike'Earns," [before someone in Kroger compliance and PR says, no one by that name works at the Kroger location in question, I believe the manager in question's name is spelled like this: "Mykerns." This manager is nothing but a plastic smile and complete utter liar to both the employees and customers alike. There is a YouTube video of this guy talking trash to people in the store and all this guy does is walk around jive talking in some street dialect and scanning shelf tags when the carts spots are filled and there is only two check lanes open on at peak hours. One of the MRDD employees whom I'm friends with has even mentioned that she had to go through some de'moralization meeting at the beginning of her shift and was made to feel unwelcome because she out performed some of the other employees on some spreed sheet. The red vest shift managers can verify what I'm saying here.

Thanks...

I think this kroger is generally fine for in store shopping. Sometimes, they are out of stock or have less selection, and checkout times can be long, but overall, it's not a bad store.

This 1 star review is explicitly for their pickup department/option.

I tend to order for pickup often, as it saves me the time of having to walk the aisles of the store for my products. But the service has steadily gone downhill this year. I've probably ordered pickup 30 times since the start of the year. Maybe 5 out of those times was my order actually ready for pickup at the quoted time. The associates typically call 15 minutes before the scheduled time to tell me to pick it up a few hours later. Most times, I'm dissatisfied, but they will offer a $10-$20 credit to make up for it. Well about a month ago, I placed a pickup order. Same story, but this time it got delayed for over 19 hours. It was supposed to be ready at 3pm Friday, but wasnt until Saturday at 10am. During that time, I dealt with 3 employees who had terrible customer service skills and made the wait much worse. I was not even offered a credit until I filled a complaint with the BBB in Cincinnati, however I do not believe I have received that credit yet. Weeks after that complaint, a manager from this store, Anza, reached out to me to apologize for the experience. The call was good, and all was forgiven. Until this week. I placed an order for pickup for 5pm Monday. Shortly before the time, I get a call that is delayed and to come around 8pm. I asked if a credit would be applied to the order, and the associate on the phone flat out refused - twice! She then went on a tirade about how "no-one wants to work anymore". I let her know that I would be there at 8pm and in the meantime get in contact with Anza, as she mentioned during our previous conversation to let her know if I have any similar issues. Well I tried to get in touch with Anza or any manager from the store, to no avail. Mutliple associates I did talk to said Anza was on shift during the time of my call, but she could not answer the phone. That's fine, I left a massage for her to call me back. That message was over 48 hours ago, and I have received no communication back.

Anza and the rest of the management team at this location do not care about the customer. They apparently only care about their bottom line, as evidenced by the refusal to offer a credit to fix their screwup. They should be embarrassed how some of their employees interact with the customer, but I can't blame the associates, they are clearly just following management lead.

Going forward I plan to do my grocery shopping between Aldi, Whole Foods, and Giant Eagle, which are all located within a few miles of this store. If I do need something from Kroger, I will head to one of their other many locations...

I went up to the Customer Service desk and was getting the lottery tickets out of my wallet and looking for my receipt on my phone when a lady with long black hair named Eve came up to the desk. I said Hi - I need to cash in some lottery tickets and return a few items. Eve, sighs loudly clearly annoyed that she has to do her job. Following conversation below:

Me: I hand her my lottery tickets and continue to look for my receipt for items to return on my phone Eve: "Do you have your receipt?" first thing she says to me after her sigh - no greeting Me: "Yes, I'm looking for it now it's on my phone" Eve: Loudly and slowly, "And you are sure you purchased these items from this store?" Me: "Yes" ( Me thinking to myself, I know where I purchased the items that I have receipt to) Eve: Hands me my lottery money Me: Places my phone down in front of her with my digital receipt, "Here's my receipt" Eve: Scrolls through my phone, then says very condescendingly "Ohhh, this receipt is older than 30 days and we don't take returns past 30 days" Me: "Oh, ok did your policy change recently?" Eve: "Oh no, it's been like that for years" Me: "Ok" I start to gather my stuff to leave Eve: As I'm gathering my stuff - she walks to the back of the customer service desk removes a plaque from the wall and slides it across the desk to me and very rudely points to the policy, "See it says right here 30 days you can't return items past 30 days". Me: In shock that she is being this demeaning to me when I'm not even arguing about the return - "Thanks" Eve: Silent - walks away - no thank you, sorry about that, have a good day - NOTHING

I don't know what her problem is but at least she should not be working in customer service. I don't think I have ever been that disrespected before. She was gearing for a fight the moment I stepped up to that counter she had an attitude. I don't even care that I couldn't return the products. I wasn't demanding a refund at all.

You can probably watch the cameras to see our interaction - not sure if there is audio, but if there is I would listen to it. I complained to a manager named Alex - I don't know if he did anything - he said would talk to her. Time on receipt 4:46pm date 1/20/25 Transaction #: 942 30 47 469

I'm still in shock that you have this person with ZERO customer service skills working a customer service desk. Also, a lot of your employees, mainly the front ends, just stand around and do nothing - including Eve. You guys were extremely busy and when I worked at a grocery store for 9 1/2 years we helped people - not stood around doing nothing and treating people poorly. I hope you take this seriously, because all I was doing was cashing in lottery tickets and trying to return a few things worth...