What I like about the "ghetto" Krogers is that they sell the scratch and dent or almost expired goods on a back shelf for something like 50-90% off. This is something that never happens in nicer Krogers, let alone high end grocers, who just throw it away and take a full loss. Personally, if I can get a couple of steaks to throw on the grill that night for $2 a pound because they expire the next day and started to oxidize just a bit, I'm all in.

Those are like tertiary Krogers. If live near Cincinnati where all suburbs are beloved they are probably going to have a primary Kroger in them. In Columbus we have those in Dublin/Worthington/Westerville and Grandview/UA. But Columbus also has lower-teir 'burbs that get secondary Krogers. Those are the ones I frequent now that I don't live in the city any more. They still run out of things on weekend evenings but don't have the barren produce sections or dented cans.

 

Protip: if you find something expired at Kroger it is automatic BOGO

Since my grill was broken by a brick that fell off my neighbor's chimney my food expenditures have gone way down.  When you cut meat and fish out of your routine and just go back to eating a rotation of hard boiled eggs, bagels, and spaghetti, you're saving at least $100/month. 

I'm glad that part of my life is over.

I'll tell you what was rad: A few years before they shut down, Big Bear started putting convenience stores on the sides of its supermarkets. You could park in an area that wasn't full of cars yet right next to the store. Also, you didn't have to pass through that hateful area at the front of the store where people think it's a good idea to drive through constantly while there are six billion old ladies slowly milling about. If you just needed 1 or 2 things you didn't have to traipse the whole 100,000 sq. ft. Big Bear Plus.

 

I've seen some Meijer stores that have a walk-in convenience store at their gas station. I'm not sure why Kroger doesn't take that approach.

 

What I like about the "ghetto" Krogers is that they sell the scratch and dent or almost expired goods on a back shelf for something like 50-90% off. This is something that never happens in nicer Krogers, let alone high end grocers, who just throw it away and take a full loss. Personally, if I can get a couple of steaks to throw on the grill that night for $2 a pound because they expire the next day and started to oxidize just a bit, I'm all in.

 

I really like shopping at the Bellevue Kroger. It's not a massive "bougie" Kroger but it's also has everything that I'm looking for unlike most urban Kroger locations. When I try to go into the Walnut Hills or OTR stores, they are often missing very basic stuff that I'm looking for. (WH didn't have Iams brand cat food.) So Bellevue is a nice middle ground with the best of both worlds.

 

I do chuckle when I see the scratch and dent section at the "lesser" Kroger stores. Because you're right, they would never have that at the "nicer" stores.

Since my grill was broken by a brick that fell off my neighbor's chimney my food expenditures have gone way down.  When you cut meat and fish out of your routine and just go back to eating a rotation of hard boiled eggs, bagels, and spaghetti, you're saving at least $100/month. 

 

Hey, that's true. I started to realize that I don't buy much meat anymore; not because I can't afford it (although there's definitely been times when that was the case) but because it makes cooking a lot more time consuming and complex. It's more dishes to wash and more to worry about. I'll eat out if I want meat. After working 60-70 hours a week for so many years as a chef and as a manager at Donatos, I just don't like to cook anymore unless I'm going all out and cooking for other people and want to make them something nice. I'm a ninja assassin in the kitchen when it comes to making quick yet tasty (and coincidentally, cheap) Italian pastas and Mexican dishes. If you use the right fresh ingredients, especially when it comes to things like garlic cloves, basil, spinach and buy quality cheese, you don't really need meat to give it good flavor. There's this misconception that good food is a result of some magical blend and ratio of herbs and spices but any chef will tell you that the quality and freshness of the food makes it stand out more than the ingredients themselves! If I owned a restaurant, I wouldn't care at all about giving my recipes out; the only thing I'd try to keep secret is how i prepare the food and where my ingredients are sourced because that's where the true competitive advantage lies. For example, you would have no better quality burger than if you get a hold of CAB (Certified Angus Beef) from nearby Wooster, OH. Beef isn't just beef. I digress, but yeah, your Kroger brand pastas like Rigaoni, Fettuccini, etc. are like a dollar and it's enough to make like 2-3 dinners. You can get get a basic marinara sauce for like a dollar and add your own fresh garlic and peppers and whatnot. Kroger has very reasonably priced cheese. It's always like $2 or $2.50 for a bag that I think is 4 cups. Then of course things like rice, beans and torillas are ridiculously cheap. It can be a lot of prep work initially but you can make a lot at once and store it in the freezer or fridge and it lasts a long time. Expiration dates and recommended shelf lives set by the food distributors are absolutely ridiculous. They're really just "best if used by" dates and they're way too conservative, even with that. It's not going to kill you. You can also simply just make your food acidic or salty before you store it and it'll last a lot longer just because of that.

 

Is the dairy industry specifically, subsidized by the state of Ohio? You brought up eggs. Anyone else notice that Kroger has particularly cheap dairy products? $2-$2.50 for a gallon of milk. Eggs are like a dollar. Like I said, cheese is always a good deal at Kroger. I think butter is, too.

 

What I like about the "ghetto" Krogers is that they sell the scratch and dent or almost expired goods on a back shelf for something like 50-90% off. This is something that never happens in nicer Krogers, let alone high end grocers, who just throw it away and take a full loss. Personally, if I can get a couple of steaks to throw on the grill that night for $2 a pound because they expire the next day and started to oxidize just a bit, I'm all in.

 

Yeah, that's actually one thing I hate about Kroger. There's a huge difference between their stores in "nice" neighborhoods and in the ghetto. Ever since I raised a stink on this site back in 2007 about how Kroger locations in the ghetto (especially Cincinnati) have horrible selections, need remodeled, lack nutritious and quality produce, word got spread around until finally Kroger had to at least speak on the issue. For a large chain, they just don't keep the same standards at each location and I don't like that. Even in terms of customer service and staffing levels. They're much more concerned about their image when it comes to their customers with more disposable income. I always thought that food stamps created a level playing field but I guess I'm not the most qualified person to speak on it. Perhaps they make more money on their premium products that one cannot buy with food stamps (quality wine, etc.) but still, we've all been stuck in line at Kroghetto behind welfare queens with 6 kids who have 2 shopping carts full of Ribeye steaks and Redbull and sh!t (because you need a bunch of energy to sit on your butt and yell at your kids all day.) I'm not sure if I'd buy that excuse. It's the people who don't get food stamps that really need those manager specials! I'm with you on this. There's nothing wrong with having a nice big section, even tucked away in the back (where, understandably, you're forced to walk past everything else first) with the magical manager special merchandise. It's absolutely glorious when you find a manager special on something you really like. I'm well aware from having the authority to discount merchandise myself, that heavy discounts can dilute or de-value your premium brand, but hell, we're just talking about every-day groceries here.

 

I see no reason for them to throw things away instead of discount them. I think it's an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE how much food stores throw away. In France, it's illegal to throw away expired food. If you're a grocer in France, you have a DUTY to give it away to the homeless. What we do in America with food is absolutely disgusting to me and I think the way we subsidize farmers, enables it. There's people right here at home, KIDS, who go hungry everyday because their drug addicted or lazy parents sell all of their food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar and we have billion dollar companies just throwing away perfectly good food. If I was ever in favor for bigger government, there would be an agency that comes by all these stores and picks up expired or almost expired food and delivers it to food pantries or even delivers it to the elderly or just people in need. What an absolute disgrace and the produce they're throwing away is actually the healthy stuff that's missing in the diet of people who live in the inner city who tend to buy all the pre-packaged dinners loaded with preservatives that don't contain any fruits or veggies.

 

This is something I feel very strongly about. I didn't know that Kroger throws away so much stuff at their higher-end locations. That really bothers me. They could get a lot of good publicity, create an even stronger consumer-base if they did the right thing with their expired or almost expired food.

 

At Donatos, our mission was "to promote good will, through people, products and services" and I honestly believe that's the reason why the company is so successful and does more than twice the sales per unit than the average pizzeria. They look at the community, even non-customers and nearby businesses as neighbors and family. I donated pizzas all the time, even fresh ones when it was appropriate. When Huntington bank down the street in the Short North got robbed, I sent them free pizzas. We banked with them and they'd come in occasionally so screw it. If we had extra pre-made pizzas at the end of the night (would otherwise be thrown out because they're only good in the cooler for 4 hours after they're sauced,) I'd cook them and then send a driver with them to police stations, firehouses, homeless shelters, you name it. It costed me probably $4 in labor and I'd be at the restaurant even later at night waiting for the driver to come back but that's part of the reason why our sales were always up at least 10% from the same quarter in the prior year and why I managed to get bonuses based on those sales increases. We live in a consumer-driven society where people respect and admire companies that try to be socially responsible.

I'll tell you what was rad: A few years before they shut down, Big Bear started putting convenience stores on the sides of its supermarkets. You could park in an area that wasn't full of cars yet right next to the store. Also, you didn't have to pass through that hateful area at the front of the store where people think it's a good idea to drive through constantly while there are six billion old ladies slowly milling about. If you just needed 1 or 2 things you didn't have to traipse the whole 100,000 sq. ft. Big Bear Plus.

 

I've seen some Meijer stores that have a walk-in convenience store at their gas station. I'm not sure why Kroger doesn't take that approach.

 

 

 

The Meijer convenience store isn't quite as good since it's just like a regular convenience store. The Big Bear ones had more "real food" and general merchandise items.

 

The way Kroger relentlessly advertises at least every half hour on the top 15 radio stations in their cities, tries to buy all these Wallgreens-type stores just to shut them down and won't build full convenience stores with their gas stations that are located in the supermarket outlots leads me to believe they want to force you into the bigass store as much as possible.

OMG... Big Bear. "Give 'em a big bear hug!" Haha. Memories. When I was a whipper-snapper, growing up in Franklinton, we surprisingly had one in that neighborhood. Central Point was probably actually pretty nice back in the day. I think I remember them having carnivals in the parking lot. That would be awesome if Kroger did stuff like that. It would probably be a "liability" or something.

 

It'd be really nice if Kroger had mini-stores attached, with the popular items right in front of you. Not just what gas stations carry but an actual selection of the main, practical items you shop for. They'd never go for that though because big-box stores are designed to make you walk past all the useless crap before you get to the stuff you intended to actually go to the store for. I like how they have the liquor store out front, attached to the main store, in the Short North but liquor just isn't something most people buy frequently, unless they're alcoholics. The liquor store on the side of the building was probably a result of needing to get around some zoning ordinance or liquor permit issue. I bet it wasn't even intentional.

OMG... Big Bear. "Give 'em a big bear hug!" Haha. Memories. When I was a whipper-snapper, growing up in Franklinton, we surprisingly had one in that neighborhood. Central Point was probably actually pretty nice back in the day. I think I remember them having carnivals in the parking lot. That would be awesome if Kroger did stuff like that. It would probably be a "liability" or something.

 

Nah, that's just some private company looking to make money. Carnivals still pop up in that lot to make money despite the KMart and Big Bear being gone. You see those 'hood carnivals in Linden and on the East Side sometimes as well.

Hehe. That's a very Columbus thing. Especially around Cinco de Mayo!

 

Since my grill was broken by a brick that fell off my neighbor's chimney my food expenditures have gone way down.  When you cut meat and fish out of your routine and just go back to eating a rotation of hard boiled eggs, bagels, and spaghetti, you're saving at least $100/month. 

 

Hey, that's true. I started to realize that I don't buy much meat anymore; not because I can't afford it (although there's definitely been times when that was the case) but because it makes cooking a lot more time consuming and complex. It's more dishes to wash and more to worry about. I'll eat out if I want meat. After working 60-70 hours a week for so many years as a chef and as a manager at

 

 

One of my major peeves with roommates (or anyone) is wasting food.  I tell people that if you can't remember absolutely everything you have then you have too much stuff.  You're going to end up throwing stuff out, maybe because you bought it twice because you thought you were out.  My brother makes fun of me because I have "nothing" in my house to eat, but visit his place and half that stuff is going to sit there for 4 months and then get thrown out.  I can tell you exactly what I have and when I bought it.  Like, exactly how many eggs and exactly how many pieces of fruit, etc.

 

The same people who don't know what they have in their kitchen are the same people who don't know how much they owe on their house, what the interest rate is, how much they owe on their car, etc.  They keep paying fees at the bank and get charged for playing Candy Crush or whatever dumb thing they do.  It's a symptom of a disorganized and impulsive existence.   

 

 

 

 

 

the same people who don't know how much they owe on their house, what the interest rate is, how much they owe on their car, etc.

 

 

 

0-0-0

 

cash cash cash

 

People think that if they have a loan balance that it's how much money they have. That's how Donald Trump's brain works. Warren Buffet pointed that out.

^ Now you're taking me back to college when my roommate asked, "If you get a bank statement and your balance is in parentheses, what does that mean?"

 

I really like shopping at the Bellevue Kroger. It's not a massive "bougie" Kroger but it's also has everything that I'm looking for unlike most urban Kroger locations. When I try to go into the Walnut Hills or OTR stores, they are often missing very basic stuff that I'm looking for. (WH didn't have Iams brand cat food.) So Bellevue is a nice middle ground with the best of both worlds.

 

 

 

Oh the Tri-State out-of-state Kroger trick. I used to pull that one by going to the Proctorville Ohio Kroger when I lived in Huntington, WV. WV has sales tax on food whereas Ohio doesn't. I thought I was being crafty by going to Proctorville to buy food but alas, my Kroger Plus rewards didn't transfer from Ohio to WV since Proctorville was in the same corporate region as Columbus while WV was all its own at the time rewards-wise. Did I want to enhance Ohio or WV with my taxes? Only my cleaning products and other non-food items helped Ohio and Lawrence County tax revenue. I decided that I didn't care.

Yeah, that thought has crossed my mind more than once before. Frankly I don't care whether Bellevue's sales tax is 1.5¢ higher or lower than Cincinnati's... it's not going to affect where I go shopping. But when the new Corryville store opens, I will look forward to shopping there and keeping my tax dollars in the state of Ohio.

cash cash cash

 

At some point the food stamps moved from actual stamps to that card with the bird or the Columbus skyline on it.  That's really a disaster because it took away the shame of having to get out that stamp book (you can swipe that card incognito), it makes people think that cards of any sort are good, and it causes people to overpay and be even more impulsive than they used to be. 

 

Any trip to the grocery is always a goddamn spectacle.  Just look at all that crap people are buying!  You don't need almost any of it. 

 

 

At some point the food stamps moved from actual stamps to that card with the bird or the Columbus skyline on it.  That's really a disaster because it took away the shame of having to get out that stamp book (you can swipe that card incognito), it makes people think that cards of any sort are good, and it causes people to overpay and be even more impulsive than they used to be. 

 

Any trip to the grocery is always a goddamn spectacle.  Just look at all that crap people are buying!  You don't need almost any of it.

 

Do you really think that the problem with Ohio's WIC program is that recipients don't experience sufficient shame at checkout?

 

 

My problem in buying food is that I consistently overshoot my enthusiasm to eat lettuce and fruits, and even though I know it is in the fridge I am too lazy to eat them.

 

You can save so much money buying the chicken there, or pork, and cooking yourself.  I live in an apartment with no grills allowed so I use a Foreman for everything, which tends to stink up the small apartment a bit but it's easy and not too much clean up.

 

When I was in college, I decided to save a bunch of money when I wasn't at work to eat the pizza, by buying canned salmon and crackers and eating that for dinner every night.  I don't know how I did it for so long because it grosses me out now, but I lost a lot of weight and was lean by eating that much salmon.  I think I calculated I spent around $1.50 per night on dinners and then ate bran cereal and milk for breakfast.  Now mostly I just bring in deli meat from behind the counter at Kroger to work and keep about 3 lbs. at work and it lasts me a couple weeks.  Even though it is more expensive than the pre-packaged stuff, it is about 500 times better tasting and better for you as well.  I usually go out to eat a couple times over the weekend with my girlfriend so that fills up my food budget for the week.

 

That's why I don't understand when people say if the streetcar goes uptown that a ton of college students will come downtown.  I could and still can't really afford to eat out much in OTR with my college debt, etc. and I don't understand how any college student could ever afford to go downtown or OTR to either party or eat out.  College at Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, they had pitcher specials for like $4 bucks and otherwise we would all chip in for a keg for a couple weekends before going out.  I don't understand how college students would have any money at all to eat out, shop, and go to the expensive bars for craft beer or cocktails or whatever.

 

My go to move in college was to close the store on Friday's and Saturday's, get back at 11:00, down a couple 40's of bud ice and hit a bowl then meet up with my buddies on the Hill for pitchers.  Worked great and saved a ton of money.

 

At some point the food stamps moved from actual stamps to that card with the bird or the Columbus skyline on it.  That's really a disaster because it took away the shame of having to get out that stamp book (you can swipe that card incognito), it makes people think that cards of any sort are good, and it causes people to overpay and be even more impulsive than they used to be. 

 

Any trip to the grocery is always a goddamn spectacle.  Just look at all that crap people are buying!  You don't need almost any of it.

 

Do you really think that the problem with Ohio's WIC program is that recipients don't experience sufficient shame at checkout?

 

 

 

I remember when U-Scan first hit it was around the time that paper food stamps were on the way out. I was living in Portsmouth at the time, which had something like 80% of residents on public assistance. The U-Scan would loudly yell out, "PLEASE TAKE ALL FOOD STAMPS TO THE CASHIER!"

cash cash cash

 

At some point the food stamps moved from actual stamps to that card with the bird or the Columbus skyline on it.  That's really a disaster because it took away the shame of having to get out that stamp book (you can swipe that card incognito), it makes people think that cards of any sort are good, and it causes people to overpay and be even more impulsive than they used to be. 

 

Any trip to the grocery is always a goddamn spectacle.  Just look at all that crap people are buying!  You don't need almost any of it. 

 

 

 

Have you ever been on food stamps? Just wondering.

:wink:

I don't understand how any college student could ever afford to go downtown or OTR to either party or eat out.

$1.50 Burger Beer at MOTR, is the answer  :wink:

 

btw I enjoyed reading your food notes. brought back memories - in my case of many, many casseroles.

College student budgets can vary greatly.

This is what happens when you have for-profit grocery stores (with the exception of Findlay Market and the new Clifton Market) + a completely car-oriented region:

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/walnut-hills/walnut-hills-residents-collecting-signatures-to-save-their-endangered-kroger-store

 

 

 

 

What good will collecting signatures do? Kroger threatened to close the store years ago because it was losing money and compromised to keep it open until the Corryville store reopened. It sucks that WH is losing their store, I just don't see the value of a petition drive.

The corryville store is better positioned to serve the WH community plus with a new DT store that could be on the way, it would be more than enough to serve the community.

 

Do you really think that the problem with Ohio's WIC program is that recipients don't experience sufficient shame at checkout?

 

 

I'm anti-credit card and even debit card.  Getting away from cash increases the amount one tends to spend on repeating and one-time purchases.  Combine card purchases and free money and people spend even more recklessly than they did with the coupons. 

 

 

Have you ever been on food stamps? Just wondering.

 

 

Have you?  Look like you're baiting so that you can swoop in with the topper story. 

 

What good will collecting signatures do? Kroger threatened to close the store years ago because it was losing money and compromised to keep it open until the Corryville store reopened. It sucks that WH is losing their store, I just don't see the value of a petition drive.

 

Signatures aren't money!

 

 

Have you ever been on food stamps? Just wondering.

 

 

Have you?  Look like you're baiting so that you can swoop in with the topper story. 

 

 

Yes. But this wasn't a "topper" because my parents wanted to shield us from the worry and stigma of being on food stamps so i didn't even know we were on food stamps until i was in college.

 

Compassion. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes. You don't think most people on food stamps want to get off? You don't think they aren't still trying to stretch food bills among meager funds and resources?

The biggest shock was when the checks would roll in once a month and the Kroger and Wal-Mart stores down in Kentucky would be flooded with people at midnight carting away shopping carts full of soda. Which is used as currency for drugs and has a nickname: Kentucky's Pop Train. Not to mention thousand+ people who abuse SSI benefits, like the notorious lawyer Eric C. Conn who was busted earlier in the year (and where there were reported suicides the day of his arraignment). Receiving government handouts indefinitely is a serious issue, not just in Kentucky, but in Cleveland. With the abuse of SSI, TANF, food stamps (which is a nice and discreet debit card that doesn't shame anyone)... it gives people less incentive to work.

Just a point of reference here - I don't think the food stamp discussion really belongs on this page. While important to politics and society, does not really have anything to do with the Kroger Company.

^You mean a Cincinnati thread going wildly off topic.  That so rarely happens. :wink:

My points were that use of a debit card-type card for food stamps instead of a physical coupon is that people are actually getting less for that money because study after study indicates that people overpay when using cards of any sort -- be they credit or debit cards.  Second, not only are people on food stamps getting less food for the same dollar amount because of the switch to the swipe cards, it's putting them in the frame of mind that cards are good things which they aren't (see above).  When I was a kid I remember it being pretty obvious when somebody was paying with food stamps because it turned into a bit of a production at the check-out lane, the people were usually obese, and their carts were stuffed with all sorts of junk food we never had. 

 

The biggest shock was when the checks would roll in once a month and the Kroger and Wal-Mart stores down in Kentucky would be flooded with people at midnight carting away shopping carts full of soda. Which is used as currency for drugs and has a nickname: Kentucky's Pop Train. Not to mention thousand+ people who abuse SSI benefits, like the notorious lawyer Eric C. Conn who was busted earlier in the year (and where there were reported suicides the day of his arraignment). Receiving government handouts indefinitely is a serious issue, not just in Kentucky, but in Cleveland. With the abuse of SSI, TANF, food stamps (which is a nice and discreet debit card that doesn't shame anyone)... it gives people less incentive to work.

 

There has been some interesting research into food stamp culture by state, since the various states each release the funds in different ways (i.e. first of the month versus each Monday, etc.).  In the monthly states there is a wild surge of spending in specific categories but less-so in states with regular releases.  The general consensus was that the monthly states should switch to a biweekly or weekly disbursement. 

 

I'm personally not that upset by food stamp fraud, it's what people buy with the food stamps.  You shouldn't be able to buy junk food and frozen food (which is junk food).  Food stamps should be redeemable for fruit, vegetables, and basic cooking items, not a stack of Tony's frozen pizzas. 

 

 

Once a month disbursements lead to junk food since it keeps for so much longer than real food. Going onky once a month also results in fewer disruptive grocery trips.

^You mean a Cincinnati thread going wildly off topic.  That so rarely happens. :wink:

 

Apparently, the not so subtle hint was not heeded. (I normally would not join in posting this but it puts me over 900 posts so who hoo, I consider it a milestone)

^ Food stamps are used at Kroger all the time, I think we are perfectly on topic here. Most of these posts even mention "Kroger" at some point.

 

There has been some interesting research into food stamp culture by state, since the various states each release the funds in different ways (i.e. first of the month versus each Monday, etc.).  In the monthly states there is a wild surge of spending in specific categories but less-so in states with regular releases.  The general consensus was that the monthly states should switch to a biweekly or weekly disbursement. 

 

I'm personally not that upset by food stamp fraud, it's what people buy with the food stamps.  You shouldn't be able to buy junk food and frozen food (which is junk food).  Food stamps should be redeemable for fruit, vegetables, and basic cooking items, not a stack of Tony's frozen pizzas. 

 

I think Ohio does monthly payments, but on a staggered schedule over the first three weeks of each month. I notice the Kroger I'm at every week is much slower toward the end of the month. These urban stores must do a ton of business via EBT cards. More often than not I end up in line behind someone paying with it. While it's not as obvious as the old stamps were, it's still pretty noticeable because the shopper will split up orders and pay cash for booze or cigarettes or prepared food.

 

Restricting what foods were eligible for EBT would probably have a huge impact on obesity. It's hard to get fat if you're limited to healthy ingredients. It doesn't take much longer, at all, to cook some rice and a chicken breast than a frozen pizza, especially if you factor in the cost savings, and no one is getting all that fat on the former. I imagine businesses and manufacturers would have problems with these restrictions though - they all make more money on the junk food, and their sales would plummet if they were no longer EBT eligible. It would be tough to write the actual laws though - granola is healthy, but what about a granola mix with all sorts of sugary garbage in it? I'd think the government would need to select certain categories that were eligible, and then put the onus of compliance on food producers.

Buying fresh fruit and vegetables every day for a family with five or more people under one roof would get quite expensive but people aren't avoiding fresh food for that reason.  People (including me) get hooked on a steady rotation of salty and sugary processed foods and spend a lot of money on drinks.  Most health buffs will tell you to drink water pretty much 100% of the time and that milk and fruit juice are unnecessary.  When I was in college I remember getting hooked on cheap orange juice (Ocean Spray out of the vending machine, Snapple, etc.) not realizing that it was essentially junk food and perhaps one notch above Hawaiian Punch. 

 

You can see over and over again that people are wasting their food stamps on pop and sugary drinks (Sunny Delight, etc.) that could instead be spent on real food.  Obviously, the companies that make that stuff don't want food stamps to cut them off and have lobbied behind-the-scenes to keep the poor sugared up and the money rolling in. 

sugar people

Something annoying that can happen if you live in an area that is slightly under-retailed is that a Kroger will open, expand or add a pharmacy. Sounds good right? Everybody blames Wal-Mart for this, but a Kroger can negatively affect your local economy as well. The small outer-ring town I recently moved to is not a retail darling like Mason or Hillard. When the Kroger opened, the local pharmacy closed and the small local grocery market went to being a standard convenience store full of snacks, bongs, beer, and your token random canned goods nobody buys. This is inconvenient since now you have to get everything from Kroger. Need aspirin? Guess where is the only place in town to buy it? Get in your car, drive real far then march across the huge parking lot for one item. I've already got a fridge full of food from going there yesterday; I just need ONE THING.

 

The other day I was in there and the guy in front of me only had a bottle of aspirin but also wanted cigarettes. The cigarettes were locked up all the way at the other end of the registers and the tetotalling middle-age women that work there invariably know nothing about cigarettes. They must have gone back and forth 5 times and then had to get management involved to get the guy the right cigarettes since he couldn't just point at them from that far away. If that local pharmacy didn't have to close the user experience of the area would be much better. It makes you resent Kroger if you have to go there 5 times a week since everything else closed.

 

Kroger was looking at buying some Walgreens and Rite-Aid locations so that those two companies would be allowed to merge. But when they found out the FTC wouldn't allow Kroger to buy the stores just to shut them down and take over their prescriptions they backed out.

 

 

Kroger balks at buying stores from Walgreens-Rite Aid deal -source

 

 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has told Kroger it would not have the option to close and integrate Rite Aid stores that are near Kroger locations, the source said...

 

Walgreens said in early September it would likely have to divest between 500 and 1000 stores, more than its previous estimate, to win regulatory approval for its planned acquisition. Walgreen operates about 8,100 stores in the United States.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/riteaid-ma-walgreens-kroger-idUSL1N1CP0RB

 

 

 

It looks like Kroger is getting close to buying some of these Walgreens/Rite Aid stores, most of which are around 14,000 square feet. Like GCrites80s[/member] said, they won't be allowed to shut them down, they'll have to actually operate them.

 

So, Kroger's strategy here seems a little odd. On the one hand, they have acquired several brands that do smaller urban stores very well, and with this Walgreens/Rite Aid news, they're getting even deeper into the convenience store business. And yet, in the Midwest, they continue to shut down smaller stores in urban areas and push everyone towards their massive Marketplace stores.

 

Turns out, Kroger will not be buying any of the former Walgreens or Rite Aid stores.

New Mt. Orab Kroger Marketplace, built right next to the old Kroger, which is now vacant. How on earth does this make any sense?

 

You never know, someone might need 75,000 square feet in Mt. Orab

You never know, someone might need 75,000 square feet in Mt. Orab

 

"You can tell that bank used to be a pizza hut..."

I understand why in booming suburbs, Kroger might build a new store across the street and sell off their old one to become a Stein Mart or something. But the example I posted above is in a corn field with nothing else around. Why would they not just expand/remodel the existing store? Is it a good move branding-wise to make all of your customers drive past an abandoned former Kroger to get to the current Kroger?

Kroger Announces Grand Opening of Mt. Orab Marketplace Store

 

"The new Mt. Orab Kroger Marketplace is, at 133,000 square feet, more than twice the size of the former store and offers not only the best in produce, meat, cheese and a wide selection of groceries, but an array of home décor, a kitchen place department, home storage solutions, outdoor living accessories, and more.

 

The Mt. Orab Kroger Marketplace is also the first Kroger in the area to feature a Baby World department. It’s a store within the store bursting with a wide variety of Baby Basics from cribs to strollers, car seats to clothes and much more. The store even features an adorable collection of small sized fine jewelry for infants and toddlers!"

 

The old store was only built in 2000. So it was only TEN years old when it was abandoned... for a store with home decor, baby jewelry and outdoor items, which are arguably higher margin items. But does it make financial sense? I guess so, especially if they can off-load the old Kroger into a holding company or some other destitute entity that will pop a flea market into it.

^ These types of buildings are incredibly cheap to build, especially on a wide open, flat site. We're talking below $50 a square foot. I have no idea how much profit a Kroger store makes per year but it doesn't need to be much to pay off the construction costs of the building rather quickly.

Why not just add onto the existing store and renovate it into a marketplace store. I cant imagine it costing more. It may not save much, but it seems more efficient to use your existing footprint.

Why would they not just expand/remodel the existing store?

 

I suspect that one of the factors is keeping the old store open while the new one is under construction.

Does Kroger own the stores? or do they rent them? Maybe their lease was up and they wanted a new building so the developer built them a new building instead of losing them completely.

Yahoo News blames Kroger's expansion of organic and high-end food for downturn at Whole Foods:

 

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/whole-foods-facing-worst-nightmare-150132403.html

^That Kroger in the article is totally a Richmond Kroger.