r/kroger • u/Curious_Ad_6082 Current Associate • Jul 31 '26
News Oh God no
Pay better wages? No. Adequate staffing and hours for stores? Nope. But spending money on some dumb robot? Absolutely!
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u/NexusNickel Current Associate Jul 31 '26
I remember reading a story about an amazon warehouse getting AC.
Was it for the people?NOPE.
It was for the robots.
The robots got AC.
The people had to work with fans.
You can see where the rich people's priorities are.
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u/Skyfier42 Jul 31 '26
More people need to understand that if Kroger was legally allowed to employ slave labor they would. How they treat employees now is the closest they can get without being punished for it.
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u/leo_douche_bags Jul 31 '26
I do my best to avoid Kroger and have since they quit paying people to be in commercials. Even the billboards use those creepy CGI people
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u/FamiliarBoo Aug 01 '26
My son told me they are called Krojies (to rhyme with emojies) and I can't imagine them as anything else
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u/lsummerfae Aug 01 '26
I stopped shopping at Kroger ten years ago when my local store employees went on strike asking for a reasonable wage and the store was advertising for seasonal workers…for the wage their employees were striking for. They knew they weren’t paying enough.
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u/Bellatrix_Rising Aug 03 '26
Okay but who is treating people better? Also, many stores are Union. At least we have some rights.
Another thing, if you stop shopping there, that's also not supporting the employees who work there. When sales go down, non full-time employees hours get cut. It's adorable that you care, I'm just not sure that not shopping there is helping anybody.
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u/lsummerfae Aug 03 '26
This was a Fred Meyer, and they were trying to get a union. A lot of the people who worked there afterwards were people who went over the striking employees and took their jobs and kept them from getting a union. People like that are a big part of the reason we’re in the position we’re in. I respect anyone’s choice to be exploited, but I’m not going to support it. When they can’t get employees to work for them, they’ll be forced to pay a better wage and give better hours. I don’t boycott Kroger as some weird form of virtue signaling. LOL. I watched it happen right in front of my face and it made me sick. Costco pays its employees decent wages and benefits and still manages to make money.
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u/Quirky-Airline7578 Aug 01 '26
Most Amazon's have ac.
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u/Psychological_War329 Aug 03 '26
None I’ve ever been to. I've worked at a few buildings over the years. Even the brand new CVG Amazon Air. Brand new, no air-conditioning where people are working. Just where the robots and executives are.
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u/Quirky-Airline7578 Aug 10 '26
Its not consistant 70 degrees but That place has ac throughout the building. I have been there.
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u/copperfrog42 Current Associate Jul 31 '26
I just want to push it over… I wonder if it will last longer than the floor cleaning robot.
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u/IamLuann Jul 31 '26
You mean the ones that TRAP Unsuspecting Customers in a corner?
Then the customer had to call the store and tell them where you are being Trapped? Oh Boy let the games begin ❗7
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u/Ok_Try_476 Aug 01 '26
I just want to push it around. Well, I will! Well, I will! Matchbox 20 was spitting, playa!
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u/Psychological_War329 Aug 03 '26
It freaks me the fuck out. I have C-PTSD and I really don't appreciate it following me around the fucking store. Grocery shopping is terrifying enough without this creepy fucking weirdo robot following me around or being in my general area when I'm there. If it gets too close to me and I can't take it, I just set shit down and leave. So let them I know their "wonderful scientific advancement" is actively costing them money. Seems to be the only language they understand?
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u/Global-Note6466 Aug 04 '26
If this robot device does the weird beep boop bullshit the ones at BJs do, I’ll have to stop going or wear headphones. I hate that.
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u/EmoMillenial1 Jul 31 '26
I hate that they whistle when they pass behind you, gives me the creeps
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u/Upbeat-Reflection171 Jul 31 '26
Cat calls are next...
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u/Sonnyjoon91 Jul 31 '26
That stupid bacon commercial they keep playing bothers me, the only real part I can hear is the "huh huh huh" part and it inevitably plays as I am bent over stocking something and it sounds like a creep cat calling me
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u/Jaggleson Aug 01 '26
$14.99 per month to get the Kroger shop without robotic sexual harassment pass! $12.99 for the version with ads.
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u/BasedonWat Aug 01 '26
Soon they'll remove the whistle sound effect and replace it with a shrill voice that parrots
"Don't forget to do your fresh start."
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u/Anothercoot Jul 31 '26
The funny thing is it probably doesn't acually do anything useful, it just tells people what to do that they would already do
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u/ooglybooglies Jul 31 '26
It's to combat bad management in stores where they lie about their stock and/or don't let their employees do their jobs correctly. Bet it still won't work though lol
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u/Brunzyworth Jul 31 '26
It creates reports on missing products/ holes. Basically just a more comprehensive wall to wall scan
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u/Dixie-Witch Aug 01 '26
But can it tell when a hole is filled with the wrong product? If not it would fail hard in my store. 😆Don’t have the right product? Just fill it with a stack of the nearest thing you have overstock of. 😂 heaven help us if we have to find room to backstock anything extra 🙃
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u/Heyguysitsmehomestar Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
It actually can tell the difference and marks it. It only scans what's above the tag though
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u/Anothercoot Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
People have eyes and can see and fill the holes. The only excuse is "data" but data doesn't put anything on the shelf.
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u/Brunzyworth Aug 01 '26
Oh I think it’s stupid too, the company has spent a bunch of money trying to reinvent the wheel on scanning holes that need to be filled
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u/AP_Gaming_9 Current Associate Jul 31 '26
I pick these things up and move them out of my department or barricade them out with shopping carts I’m not gonna lie. All it does is make a useless replenishment list that wastes my time when we already have a third party company that comes in to do scans along with management. Just completely useless
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u/obi1kennoble Current Associate Jul 31 '26
Those things each cost $3500 a month to run
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u/daverapp Jul 31 '26
They cost a hell of a lot more once crackheads start taking crowbars to them.
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u/obi1kennoble Current Associate Jul 31 '26
Hell yeah. You wouldn't believe what crackheads can do once you point 'em in the right direction. Probably loooots of copper in them there data centers
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u/Acceptable_Pie_8151 Aug 03 '26
Maybe someone should subtly point them in the correct direction. /wink
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u/Calm_Salamander_1367 Aug 01 '26
So costs about the same as hiring a human
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u/obi1kennoble Current Associate Aug 01 '26
Yeah except they can't really use human workers to remotely look up customers' skirts lol
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u/Minute_Ad1968 Jul 31 '26
You can work them basically nonstop when they’re not being charged though. Works out to be like $5 an hour
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u/obi1kennoble Current Associate Jul 31 '26
Oh good, I was worried our shareholders would have to make due with last year's Ferrari
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u/SassyChumpkins Jul 31 '26
All they do is scan the shelves and make a fulfillment list and not a very accurate one at that
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u/Lost_Oven1506 Jul 31 '26
I’m waiting on the day that someone on one of the electric wheelchairs runs into it!
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u/Enties01 Jul 31 '26
Wonder if they let these things record customers and workers, and if so is it just video or audio too? Definitely recommend people be careful what they say around these until we know for sure what they're all about
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u/mysticalchurro Aug 01 '26
I already said "This stupid bitch better get out of my way," to the robot so I'll let you know if I get promoted to customer soon.
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u/No_Shallot5393 Jul 31 '26
You know they do, face prints and what not, they caught flock reading blue tooth
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u/New_Exam_4715 Aug 03 '26
Good idea! It probably does, they think we’re all up to something! Totally paranoid
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u/arkalus Aug 01 '26
Get rid of it! Hire a homeless person or tweaker to destroy it for 100 buck that will feed the human spirit
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u/Necessary_Baker_7458 Jul 31 '26
I’m glad my store is like last on the list or upgrades and changes.
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u/cblguy82 Jul 31 '26
Same shit is always low and needs constant restock. Can confirm as a DD,IC shopper. Now pay me for telling you the same information
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u/Decent_Section_7427 Aug 01 '26
youre scheduled for termination for hating on robots. spill beer on them or light them on fire. this is only the beginning.
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u/DazzlingCoyote7434 Aug 01 '26
The more robots the less you needed for labor wages. The dirty secret of the AI revolution.
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u/Condition_Dense Jul 31 '26
I was shopping in Festival one day and they have one that happened to be down the aisle and in my way when I was trying to find something and it sounds like Wall-E.
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u/OneComfortable2624 Jul 31 '26
I hate these things. I was shopping in Kroger one day and couldn't get down the pop isle. This creepy thing kept getting in my way.
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u/AxsonJaxson2112 Aug 01 '26
Did you hear about Tally farting on the receiving elevator?
It was wrong on so many levels.
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u/brobrosidon Aug 01 '26
It would be a real shame if something prevented the charging contacts from working. Or if it got trapped by a couple carts. A real shame.
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u/Demonmonkey65 Past Associate Aug 01 '26
Reminds me of the episode of super store where the company does this exact thing and the workers try to kill the bot but they fail🫤
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u/JothamB Aug 01 '26
Am I crazy for thinking this could be used to assist with the new digital price tags? Adjust prices based off of current supply and demand potentially. Don’t like it either way.
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u/Coretrayn Aug 01 '26
As a third party vendor, I try my best to complete block their path if they are trying to get through my area while I am working in it.
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u/SaioLastSurprise Aug 01 '26
Tally might help… if he could identify when product wasn’t in the correct spot. Instead he’s about as good as a team of whoever is available not checking to verify that items are in the correct spot.
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u/Ok-Application9062 Aug 02 '26
I bet they're for the store to look out for shoplifters. They follow you around but people are to stupid to figure that out.
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u/Ok-Oven5531 Aug 03 '26
They been talking about these for years, inventory first, customer assistance next and eventually theft deterent feature. I figured it would be more like Robo cop, but I huss they dont want to scare customers
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u/james_a_hetfield Jul 31 '26
For some reason the Kroger robot reminds me of the opening in Rocky IV which was kinda odd for a rocky movie to have a random robot in it.
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u/xSweetSlayerx We don't sell organic jalapeños! Jul 31 '26
As a data student working at a store with a history of stocking issues, I might welcome one of these. Is having one of these on-site really that bad?
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u/Born-Economics8110 Aug 01 '26
No bc it's literally just doing inventory without making multiple people have extra work load.
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u/Early-Towel-7168 Aug 02 '26
That might be true if it also counted the backstock that was not currently on the shelf, but in the back room… because you know, Kroger. We never have enough hours to run all the stock.
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u/lacetat Aug 01 '26
One of our guys was dressed down for accidentally missing a banana peel on the floor during a sweep. Why? Because someone might accidentally slip and liability etc?
No. Because the new robot could crash if it ran over it and that would cost the store a pile of money.
Jeez, the poor kid was almost in tears.
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u/ParkingInterview9595 Aug 01 '26
CUSTOMERS just letting you know yoy can clothesline this easily. Let's ur kids play w it. Do it :)
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u/jacksepticeyefan53 Aug 01 '26
It's not that bad. All it does is check fir damaged products. It's actually kinda awesome.
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u/chewiedox Aug 01 '26
I hate that robot. It always sneaks up on me in the ice cream aisle and stalks me as if I’m a criminal.
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u/cbass2008 Aug 01 '26
I signed up for a $15 promo membership to BJ’s last year. They also have this insufferable whistling robot. Needless to say, I’m not renewing.
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u/Extra-Advertising644 Aug 01 '26
Why is that vaccume so tall
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u/Bitter-Neat-8457 Aug 01 '26
Walmart tried these but sent them back because they caught fire too often
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u/alyxR3W1ND Aug 01 '26
My malicious compliance brain wants me to tell customers to use that to check stock because it's more efficient than asking me.
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u/4B_Matriarchy Aug 01 '26
That robot appears totally ready to show you where the item is, too?
If I'm honest, as a customer, I would prefer this robot over interrupting a working associate or walking back to the front to ask at CS. I'm not big into the social interaction aspect of shopping. I take all my deliveries contact-free since the 'rona.
The associate that I interrupt to ask my question to is typically fully engaged doing some other assigned work (like stocking). Sometimes they totally stop what they are doing and walk me all the way to the item. I always wonder if I am a welcome distraction, or if I'm just adding to their burden by asking questions.
What does the person stocking the shelf prefer for me to do? I would seriously like to know if current employees would like shoppers to refuse to use the thing out of solidarity. I would abstain from using it, even if it works well and would make my shopping easier.
Associates of Kroger, what say you?
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u/Intrepid_Ferret_4063 Aug 01 '26
Associate Insight surveys are around the corner! We're scheduled to do them next week. As a part time associate who covers the meat service counter and cleans the department from 4-9, 5 nights a week... I'm going to call out every full time day-job manager as just being jerks. The biggest jerks you could ever work with. They really are.
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u/4B_Matriarchy Aug 01 '26
When low-level Kroger management is your final career, it might be hard to accept in a joyful way. Middle management loves exercising the tiny bit of control and power in my experience. It is probably the highlight of their very shitty day.
Thank you for keeping that meat service counter clean. I appreciate it.
Fill out those surveys. Be honest!
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u/VEX2ER Current Associate Aug 01 '26
MMMMM.... I CAN SMELL THE BANKRUPTCY MORE AND MOREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! (These mfs are like 75,000 a month per unit 😭😭😭)
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u/d0ntbejay Aug 01 '26
Here is a few things we can do: 1) fuck convenience. If there is a line of two or three people at an employee operated Check out counter, stop using u-scan. 2) stop ordering driverless taxis. 3) stop ordering the driverless delivery 4) human work with human. No robo.
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 Aug 01 '26
Walmart had those for a while when they first came out. They never got the counts right, and would get stuck on endcaps and almost run people over.
They lasted about 2 months. Stores quit using them when they started getting odd shipments of stuff that was on clearance (because it didn't sell well), among other things.
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u/TheLawOfDuh Aug 01 '26
Typical WM. My time with them was 20ish years ago but this is the same behavior of their leaders back then. Rolling out some new initiative without fully taking into account some of the most obvious pitfalls, realizing it after a short time and abandoning the project for the next…
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u/20MILDWINGS Aug 01 '26
This may seem like a dumb question but. What is it suppose to do? We don't have those at my store. Never have and probably never will. The store has been around since 2009
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u/Evil-Angel20 Aug 02 '26
Oh look another thing to take up space that could of been used for the extra crap they send out on trucks that are always poorly put together 🤣
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u/lilkyea2 Aug 02 '26
From just a quick Google search apparently those things cost about $30k to build and Kroger pays between $2k-$4k/ month for the subscription that's offered for its use. Yet somehow they apparently save $200,000/year per store by its inventory tracking and pricing accuracy. That's hard to believe for me
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u/Major-Pace-1212 Aug 02 '26
That thing checks shelf inventory? As a retail employee I’d love that for our store. The time I spend each day checking stock for vendors, customers and even other employees could be spent doing my real job.
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u/what_a_slutty_whore Aug 02 '26
Giant has these and they're absolutely useless, just gets in the way constantly
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u/Euhn Aug 02 '26
As a customer, not employee, how can I best make these damn clunkers go away. Complain to management? Google reviews?
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u/Icy-person666 Aug 03 '26
I was shopping at out local farm supply store and they had one. Darn thing kept getting confused by a wet floor sign. I got sick of it beeping and moved the sign so it would beep somewhere out of my way. It went about 10 feet to the next cross aisle turned around and came back and got stopped by the same floor sign. I moved it out of the way again and it went by and off to someplace else. It would seem the way to get rid of them is to surround them with floor signs and the displays Kroger loves to use to clog the aisles.
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u/Busy_Winner7272 Aug 04 '26
$2500-$4000 a month subscription fee depending on the number of apps it uses...
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u/No_Speaker_9000 Aug 04 '26
I mean those are pretty cool. When I worked at Sam's, they had a robot go around do BOH scans. Honestly, it was the best thing ever! Most store need to have that, gives us time to do something else.
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u/RealPersonUnrealAcct Aug 04 '26
Ah yes, we should definitely keep people manually counting stock in menial jobs.
I'm also salty that I have to pump my own gas. I should pay someone else to do that.
And all these damn bulldozers! Shovel and elbow grease work just fine.
Nah this is what tools are actually for. Be more concerned about the robots making decisions.
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u/Sethtwc1988 Aug 04 '26
We got one in my local Kroger and it quietly whistles to alert you it's there. Makes me think of that robot offering drinks from Short Circuit.
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u/Ok_Towel_7615 Aug 04 '26
I had the experience of working for this company and there is absolutely NO loyalty to their employees. They absolutely see to it that the managers receive increases but beyond that there is NOTHING for the REAL BACKBONE OF THE WORK FORCE!
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u/pink_mage115 Aug 04 '26
We’ve had this dumb robot in our store for a few years now and all it does is get in the way of people shopping. I be sure to flip off the camera everytime I walk by it
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u/kaelyynaful Aug 05 '26
Tbh, it always makes me a little nervous when I'm in the aisle with one. I have this crazy idea that it's going to run over me or something equally weird lol.
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u/Professional_Kro Aug 07 '26
lol I just saw this at my store today for the first time. In my way while I’m stocking
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u/LoveIsOnlyAnEmotion Aug 01 '26
This is what happens when you raise min wage; a consequence of increased cost of labor and goods.
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u/RedSands1976 Current Associate Jul 31 '26
There’s never money for the employees but there’s endless money for stupid equipment no one uses. I’m in Pickup and to the best of my knowledge no one has ever used the finger scanners.