Has anything changed at your grocery store ???

[robinb]

My grocery stores look fine, but my local Walgreens look like locusts came through and carried everything away.

 

[CdnCarrie]

With the massive boycott of American products the Canadian products are harder to find. American products are not moving.

 

[HopperFan]

I used to work for a grocery chain in the NorthEast. I've seen similar and this sounds almost like they're getting ready to close the store? They stop ordering product and spread out what's left so they don't have to transfer out the leftover items. Any rumors of it closing?

I doubt it. There is another Kroger 2 miles away (never understood) and it is MUCH smaller, maybe half the size, and low visibility on a less traveled road. My Kroger is about a central as it gets. Now could they possible shrink it and sublet space and this is preparing for it? Maybe (they've done it a few times but always took the space back) but I've heard no rumblings. I need to go to some of the others and see if there are obvious changes at them. Just so strange.

 

[citruscurtis]

Interesting our what was once a retirement and winter visitor community east of Yuma is getting Sprout's and border chain store... which will force our Kroger to use more checkers for seniors and maybe get rid of digital savings

 

[bcla]

For me it's been Safeway, which I recall at one time was the largest supermarket chain in the world (maybe early 80s). The one I grew up going to in my youth closed (along with another) after a new, larger store was built.

Albertson's has since bought Safeway, along with other supermarkets that Safeway owned (especially Vons) although it's more or less maintained its identity separate from Albertson's.

That being said, I'm not super brand loyal. I'll shop at other supermarket chains, along with Trader Joe's and other local grocery places.

 

[citruscurtis]

The original Kroger in Salem Oregon is suffering because of Costco and major West Coast discount chain...so when visiting I loved that Kroger..no lines and always stocked

 

[HopperFan]

Interesting our what was once a retirement and winter visitor community east of Yuma is getting Sprout's and border chain store... which will force our Kroger to use more checkers for seniors and maybe get rid of digital savings

I love Sprouts fresh food but no way I could do all my shopping there (nor could I afford it).

OH THE NIGHTMARE of Kroger Digital Coupons. Taken me years to find them in that clunky horrid app.

 

[citruscurtis]

For me it's been Safeway, which I recall at one time was the largest supermarket chain in the world (maybe early 80s). The one I grew up going to in my youth closed (along with another) after a new, larger store was built.

Albertson's has since bought Safeway, along with other supermarkets that Safeway owned (especially Vons) although it's more or less maintained its identity separate from Albertson's.

That being said, I'm not super brand loyal. I'll shop at other supermarket chains, along with Trader Joe's and other local grocery places.

And that was strange as all the Albertsons disappeared in Salem right after the merger

 

[barkley]

For me it's been Safeway, which I recall at one time was the largest supermarket chain in the world (maybe early 80s). The one I grew up going to in my youth closed (along with another) after a new, larger store was built.

Albertson's has since bought Safeway, along with other supermarkets that Safeway owned (especially Vons) although it's more or less maintained its identity separate from Albertson's.

That being said, I'm not super brand loyal. I'll shop at other supermarket chains, along with Trader Joe's and other local grocery places.

safeway was my mom's primary grocery store when I was growing up so I leaned into it as an adult. I saw a horrific impact on our local store when albertson's bought them out which made no sense b/c the albertsons in the nearby areas were all superior to the safeways on stock and selection. the pharmacy went downhill in a big way (lost MANY customers due to horrible customer service) and the store in general is poorly stocked/understaffed. sad thing is most of the albertsons near us have become safeways and have gone downhill as well.

 

[willowsnn3]

Lots of Krogers here. I know there are 3 within 5 miles of my home & twice that within 10 miles. They are always packed. Love their digital coupons. I only started shopping Kroger a few years ago. Used to only go to Walmart or sometimes Aldi. Plenty of those around here also. I have noticed at Kroger & Walmart also that while fully stocked, there is not a lot of different brands as there used to be.

 

[citruscurtis]

I love Sprouts fresh food but no way I could do all my shopping there (nor could I afford it).

OH THE NIGHTMARE of Kroger

The nightmare now is 4x fuel Friday.. are parking lot is massive and there was no parking...we use to go to downtown sprouts when they had ads in the paper for producce...so we are excited

 

[citruscurtis]

safeway was my mom's primary grocery store when I was growing up so I leaned into it as an adult. I saw a horrific impact on our local store when albertson's bought them out which made no sense b/c the albertsons in the nearby areas were all superior to the safeways on stock and selection. the pharmacy went downhill in a big way (lost MANY customers due to horrible customer service) and the store in general is poorly stocked/understaffed. sad thing is most of the albertsons near us have become safeways and have gone downhill as well.

Wow... Salem Oregon Safeway stores are fantastic and better ads than Kroger

 

[citruscurtis]

Lincoln City Oregon Safeway had better Chinese takeout than most restaurants

 

[barkley]

Wow... Salem Oregon Safeway stores are fantastic and better ads than Kroger

Safeway here routinely will have ads claiming an item is on sale (esp. meat) at a BOGO free price but if you track their prices you will see that they have increased the per pound price to cancel out any savings. they also have a horrific track record on overcharging at the register (and they are royal pain to deal with in a state with no punitive laws to prevent this). the only Kroger related stores we have are Fred Meyers and unless you want to spend an obscene amount of time on their site clipping coupons their prices are among the highest locally and seem to stock very little of the Kroger brands (they do have beautiful stores, PHENOMINAL deli/prepared foods/bakeries, great staff). Fred's is the place people who don't shop regularly at tend to hit for certain items around the holidays. I think our best values are found at a combination of Walmart and a regional small chain that is employee owned. Costco keeps bringing in and then eliminating products so it's very hit and miss on restocking if you like a particular item.

 

[Lesverts]

Canadian so slightly different perspective.

1) Grocery stores have really gone hard into the loyalty programs and trying to keep consumers in a closed environment. You are apart of program X so you shop at program X stores for their rewards and loyalty pricing.
2) Sections in the stores have shrunk as more sections have been added to cater to a more diverse population.
3) Prices and sales use to be really cyclical. You could count on most major food groups going on sale, for a good price, once every 6 to 8 weeks

Now from my experience in US stores in the last couple of years. Walmart has gone for a nosedive in selection and price. Walmarts in the US for Canadians was a special shopping experience. Now there is half the selection, 50 percent higher prices and its just not the experience it once was. Target is another store that mystifies me on its draw anymore.

I experienced my first Meijer last year. I can understand the attraction. And from an outsider viewing in I would very likely shop at a regional/local grocer like Meijer over the much larger brands.

Also Whole Paycheck is just a nope.

 

[Planogirl]

North Texas Kroger stores haven't changed in any noticeable way. I did see a Kroger that moved into a bigger store start to limit items for a while at the old store.

As far as stock goes, I've noticed that Target carries limited items. They also tend to be expensive.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Is anyone else seeing big changes in their grocery stores?

Two supermarkets opened within 5 blocks of my residence. One is a small local chain whose name I don’t recall, the other seems to be making a big noise in the 5 boroughs: Food Bazaar.
I wish Whole Foods would open nearby. Love their food varieties (not the prices though) and have just about given up hope on Stew Leonard’s doing more than offer Instacart for deliveries. I really don’t like the markup.

 

[barkley]

Canadian so slightly different perspective.

1) Grocery stores have really gone hard into the loyalty programs and trying to keep consumers in a closed environment. You are apart of program X so you shop at program X stores for their rewards and loyalty pricing.
2) Sections in the stores have shrunk as more sections have been added to cater to a more diverse population.
3) Prices and sales use to be really cyclical. You could count on most major food groups going on sale, for a good price, once every 6 to 8 weeks

Now from my experience in US stores in the last couple of years. Walmart has gone for a nosedive in selection and price. Walmarts in the US for Canadians was a special shopping experience. Now there is half the selection, 50 percent higher prices and its just not the experience it once was. Target is another store that mystifies me on its draw anymore.

I experienced my first Meijer last year. I can understand the attraction. And from an outsider viewing in I would very likely shop at a regional/local grocer like Meijer over the much larger brands.

Also Whole Paycheck is just a nope.

I envy your access to the best soup mixes in the world (not available for purchase in or shipping to the u.s.) 'mitchells'.

 

[DodgerGirl]

In my eyes what has drove customers away from the big supermarkets is online grocery shopping and with Amazon becoming the king of grocery shopping online it has caused supermarkets to shrink their aisles and with popular stores like Aldi Trader Joe's Sprouts and Whole Foods becoming like famous movie stars these new grocery stores are slowly driving the customers away. In my city on our street we have three grocery stores directly right across from each other and they both do good business with customers. And you can also blame Walmart for grocery stores going out of style too. But you hardly see any of the independent supermarkets such as IGAs appear in cities anymore and they too have been hurt by big box supermarket chains. Take for instance when my grandfather would grocery shop with me as a little girl we would go to the independent grocery store and the workers were friendly and it was like Cheers because every worker knew my grandfather by name but when Safeway was built it hurt the store and they lost customers. But I think in the future we will see supermarket chains go broke namely the first one to go broke will most likely be Albertson's or Smith's. But as long as online grocery shopping continues to be popular supermarkets will go bankrupt in the years to come

 

[loves to dive]

We have at least 7 or 8 Kroger's within a 20 mile radius of where we live. The closest one is about 10 miles away (we live in the country). The 3 we visit the most often have remodeled but none are exactly like the other, which is frustrating. They also don't stock the same things and tend to stock for the area they are in. The one closest to us is in a semi-rural community so they tend to have less of the "healthy" things that the one where I get my prescriptions, which is close to downtown Athens. Athens is a University town and the college kids tend to buy different things. We have noticed the one we go to the most often hasn't stocked as much variety since the trying times and in the past month the shelves have not been fully stocked. They have lots of signs up on shelves either apologizing for lack of stock or for prices being higher saying they are trying to get a handle on it. I do know we went last week and our total was $100 more than 2 weeks previously. And the only meat we bought was chicken thighs and hamburger. Our area tends to have a Publix either across the street or very close to every Kroger so if we can't find what we need at Kroger we will run over to Publix. I don't like to shop at Publix regularly because their prices are higher than Kroger. I will say our Kroger's have gone to the fewer check out lines with actual people and more of the self serve check out lines, which I hate. I'd say half the time even if you go through the regular line you are going to end up baging your groceries yourself. We only go about every 3 or 4 weeks so our cart tends to be pretty full. I love the fuel points at Kroger, I got .60 a gallon off the other day when I bought gas. I also use the digital points a lot, I don't use the app. I load them from my computer. The fuel points were more important when I worked since my office was about 30 min. from home so I bought gas more often then I do now.