Kroger Chaos

Makeover disorients shoppers.

by Jeff Mortimer

posted 3/20/2010

The ongoing makeover of the Maple Road Kroger is leaving customers confused. As departments hopscotch around the store, disoriented patrons roam the aisles with stricken looks on their faces, beseeching employees to tell them where the dish detergent and aluminum foil and tuna have gone. One shopper stopped suddenly to ask for directions, only to be rear-ended by another scanning the unfamiliar shelves, triggering a traffic backup worthy of a snowy freeway at rush hour.

Workers trying to cope with the reconfiguration were constantly pulled away from their shelf-stocking and price-checking duties by people wanting to be told, or preferably shown, where to find the items on their lists. One longtime employee, previously famed for her encyclopedic knowledge of the store's inventory, sounded philosophical, if a little beleaguered.

"One thing for sure," she said. "I ain't gonna gain any weight this week."   

[Originally published in March, 2010.]