Kroger Marketplace — Local services in Conroe

My Experience at Kroger

I have been a loyal customer of Kroger for decades, dating back to when the South Loop location was an Albertsons in 1990. I continued shopping there when Kroger took over in 2002, and even after they moved to the new location across the street in 2018. Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, the quality of service and maintenance at this store has severely declined, and it’s becoming unacceptable.

Electric Cart Issues: I have mobility issues that now require me to use electric carts when shopping. Initially, the carts were reliable and plentiful, but that has completely changed. Many of the carts are either broken, have malfunctioning wheels, or die halfway through shopping. During my recent visit, I selected a cart with a full charge, but a quarter of the way through shopping, the battery died. This has happened multiple times. I am not the only one who has complained about the poor condition of the electric carts. I’ve heard from other customers who have voiced similar frustrations, but apparently, their concerns go unheard as well. Employees often leave the carts outside or inside without turning them off or plugging them in to recharge, and customers sometimes do the same. This negligence adds to the problem.

Regular Basket Issues: When there are no functioning electric carts available, I am forced to use regular shopping carts. However, many of these have broken wheels, wobble uncontrollably, or steer in multiple opposite directions, making them difficult to control. These carts also need to be fixed or replaced.

Parking Issues: The store only has nine or ten handicap parking spots, which is not enough given the size of this location. Often, these spots are filled, and some vehicles don’t even have handicap plates or placards. Management has dismissed my concerns, saying the number of handicap spots is determined by the city, and they suggest calling the police if someone parks illegally. This is not a practical solution when offenders are gone before the police arrive. More handicap spots are urgently needed, along with better enforcement.

Expired Products: I’ve also had issues with purchasing expired products. On one occasion, I bought oyster crackers that tasted odd, only to discover they had expired a year earlier. Another time, I found frozen pizzas that had expired months ago, buried beneath fresher ones. This is unacceptable and shows a lack of proper stock rotation and quality control.

Vegan and Plant-Based Options: The vegan and plant-based selection is lacking. Some vegan products have unnecessary spice added, like the vegan pepperoni, which is so spicy it’s nearly inedible. Pepperoni is not traditionally spicy, so why make it this way? Additionally, Kroger stopped selling many good vegan products or replaced them with inferior options.

Separately, the Kroger brand bean and cheese burritos were already spicy, but for some reason, they decided to make them even spicier. This made them unappealing, forcing me to spend more on name-brand options. Not everyone wants excessive spice in their food, vegan or not.

Management and Accountability: Management at this location does not seem to care about customer concerns. When I’ve brought these issues to their attention, they either pass the blame to corporate or dismiss my complaints entirely. It’s disheartening to feel like a long-time customer’s feedback isn’t valued. Corporate doesn't seem to take these concerns seriously either, which is why I feel the need to share my experience publicly.

Suggestions for Improvement: Fix or replace broken electric carts. Ensure they are fully charged and maintained regularly.

Fix or replace regular shopping carts. Customers shouldn’t struggle to use them.

Increase the number of handicap parking spaces. Enforce their proper use. Improve stock rotation and check expiration dates regularly.

Expand the vegan/plant-based selection. Remove unnecessary spice from products. Train employees to be more attentive to customer needs and complaints.

This is...

Today, my elderly mother was treated extremely rude by a cashier named Lisa. Lisa did NOT greet us when we walked up to her line, yet she continued to have a conversation with the individual that was bagging the groceries. She was very dissimive bc my mother was unaware of how to use the new digital coupons. My mother tried to give her the coupons after the transaction. Lisa's response was "Oh well, you're supposed to do it before I start scanning your items." I then explained to her that this was my mother's 1st time using the digital coupons and was unaware of the process that needed to be taken. After she scanned the groceries she refused to take the additional steps to show my elderly mother what she did wrong and instructed the woman (Angela) that was assisting with bagging up the groceries to show my mother what she needed to do. While Angela was correcting the bill, the line began to get long (2 additional customers), and Lisa said, "Look, now we have a long line, go help them somewhere else." While Lisa was saying that she pushed our belongings out the way and started scanning the next customer's items. At that point, I then had to bag up the rest of my mother's groceries and place them into her cart bc it was clearly obvious that Lisa no longer cared about my mother's items. We went to another line where Angela made the adjustments to the bill as well as showed my mother how to clip her coupons for the future. Moving forward, I would greatly appreciate it if ALL of your cashiers displayed the same level of customer service as Angela. I would advise you all to conduct custom service training and/or give your cashiers a refresher course. No elderly person should ever be mistreated because they were unaware of Kroger's...

Incredibly long lines and expired product on the shelves. When this place first opened, they brought the horrible management from the old Kroger over to it and it showed. Fast forward to present day and even with what looks like managers constantly on the floor, they still provide a negative experience to customers. What is the point of having lanes for small items if your wait time is the same as if everyone was buying out half the store? I understand it is cost effective to have one or two real lanes open and force the rest to use self checkout, but is the money saved on labor worth potentially losing customers? Also, with that extra money, maybe invest in training your management in the actual delegation of tasks. In multiple areas of the store, expired product still lives on shelves waiting for a customer to buy, get mad, and return. Employees have to be trained and managed or they will keep repeating the same mistakes. When issues keep occurring like this, then it falls directly on management whose job it is to ensure the store is operating smoothly for the customer, and creating a positive customer experience. As it stands, the only reason I even bother using this Kroger at all is due to the fact they carry a few items our local HEBs do not. The funny thing about allowing products to become expired is Kroger loses money on it. Items that cannot be returned to vendors once close to or at expiration Kroger vigorously throws on clearance to move before they hit expiration to still make some sale on it. By leaving product ro essentially die, management is hurting...