Kroger — Local services in Russellville

The Russellville Kroger (this one as well as the old location) has been my grocery store for 20+ years. I love their Kroger-branded items for the unbeatable quality to price ratio, though there are a certain few particular items where either the cheaper Kroger bargain labeling is just as good, or else I feel the national brand has extra quality that merits the higher price.

As for those brand name items, some prices are a bit cheaper at Wal-Mart on such things we frequently buy, but I find many are higher (some MUCH higher). You really have to pay close attention; just because it's Wal-Mart doesn't automatically mean it's cheaper.

At any rate, Kroger's meat and produce are easily the best in Russellville. The produce is fresh and high quality, and the excellent meats are cut in-store versus Wal-Mart's prepackaged stuff. Plus, Kroger's produce, meat and milk will always outlast Wally World's in the fridge by easily 3 to 1. They also offer custom meat cutting and free slicing.

There's indeed a better selection of specialty and gourmet grocery and produce items than most supermarkets, but there are a few rather unusual items I can only find at the local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, which is my only reason for going there.

The excellent in-store bakery is connected with the deli, which carries top-notch quality meats and cheeses with correspondingly high prices. But, the quality far exceeds what you get elsewhere. It also offers a wide variety of side items, salads and desserts, big party trays, complete family meals, and very respectable take-home sushi roll trays. The Mediterranean bar is a nice touch, with assorted high-quality single varietal and mixed olives, stuffed grape leaves, etc.

There's a small organic grocery section, the only one in the area besides the one or two small specialty shops like Country Cupboard (which is great, by the way). The Kroger floral shop compares to any other good supermarket's, and has decent prices.

The staff is courteous and knowledgeable, and will bend over backward to help you. The store is always clean and well-stocked, and meat, produce and deli items are nicely displayed.

Each purchase earns monthly points toward price-per-gallon discounts at the fuel island, and around the end of the month we normally fill our cars up at 20 or 30 cents off per gallon.

You don't need a paid membership (there isn't one) for the discount food prices, just a quick sign-up for a Kroger Plus card, that also gets you the fuel discounts as well as coupons in the mail for items you buy the most.

The only problem is that it's always extremely busy, with very heavy customer volume from open to close. Of course, that speaks as to what a great...

There are still a lot of reasons I'll continue to go here (proximity not the least), but it definitely isn't what it used to be--really, ever since the change in GMs. Customer service has taken an obvious hit, and it's showing more and more often. Don't get me wrong; there is absolutely a core cadre of friendly, helpful, hardworking folks who keep it going!

Recently, though, I'm noticing increased rates of what sure looks like poor overall training. A few paragons know all the things and can help out with most any issue, but the rest mainly flounder (interestingly, I have known management to turn down hard workers before, so I suspect the problem exists at that level). Today it cost me probably $50, which is annoying, but I was definitely too tired to make a fuss about it. When I'm done, I want to be done, not rearrange the groceries so everything that I got to fit in there fits the way they have it bagged (why not just go get a cart, and then another, instead of waiting on mine which isn't even empty?) or get off the phone to tell the cashier to ring up the pile of coupons I have clearly placed on the countertop.

I'll survive, of course, and the sticker shock at Wal-Mart keeps me coming back, but...folks, it's not that complicated to serve people in a retail-store context. I will say that although they got some of my items mixed up with another customer's (again, easy to avoid if you are trained correctly), that bag was brought out to me with an apology while I was loading my vehicle, so props for that at least. But I would really like the option of non-self-checkout to be actually, functionally available when I need it instead of expending the mental energy to do it myself...

Horrible customer service. I had an emergency where I needed a button battery. I tried other stores in town but they were either closed or out of stock. I called twice last night to ask if they had the specific battery I needed in stock. They refused to check, citing there was no one to check for me. They were very rude and they hung up on me both times. When I got to the store there was an associate tidying the shelves on an aisle directly by the batteries. They couldn't have checked? We then grabbed the battery and headed to checkout. The self checkout host who hung up on me twice and told me no one could check the batteries was there, her name was Michele Brown. For some context, the battery endcap is situated about 3 feet from self check out and directly behind it. There is clear visibility of the battery's from self check out and vice versa. She immediately became loud with me and refused to listen to anything I said, just yelled over me that she wasn't allowed to leave the area repeatedly. So, she could answer the ringing phone several check lanes away at the customer service desk(with no view of the SCO) when I called, but not check the battery end cap that is directly behind self checkout with clear visibility of SCO? It was the most bizarre behavior and the worst cashier experience I think...