Customer Relations
The Kroger Co.
1014 Vine Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-1100

Dear Kroger:

Today I had the most humiliating and insulting experience at your Liberty Fairfield store.

I was in a hurry and had less than 15 items in my cart so I proceeded to check out at the Self-Checkout Lane.

We had checked out several items already when we came to the organic grapes. I had just entered the code for it when a Kroger person comes near me to check if I had entered the code correctly. He saw that I had and made a motion as if to say it was alright, and then he notices that the register says “$1.19″. He says, “That can’t be right.” I told him that that was what the tag said on the display. He again said that it wouldn’t be $1.19 each. I said to go ahead and check it, but before he does, he consults another Kroger person behind me and asks her what she thinks. She says, “That can’t be right. $1.19 a pound maybe, but not $1.19 EACH!” I told them again that that’s what the display said and for them to check it so they do.

The guy comes back a minute later and tells me, “You’re right, Ma’am, I’m sorry, it IS $1.19 each.” I tell him, “That’s what I said.”

But no, it doesn’t stop there.

He then proceeds to take out a cereal box (organic) from the stuff that we had already checked out and looked at the monitor in front of me. I told him that I had already checked it out but apparently he needed to see for himself that I had, which he does.

It doesn’t stop there either.

Next he tries to see if I had checked out the organic parsley that I got (already in the box) and I showed him it was there and he finally stops.

I get his name (Nathan Baker, Safety Committee) and asked, “Safety from what? From people trying to steal from you?” He just laughs softly and shrugs.

I turn to the other Kroger person behind me and ask for her name too (Carol Halstead, Safety Committee). I told her that they should just do away with the self-checkout system if they don’t trust their customers enough to be honest. She just shrugs it off and says that that’s the system and that’s what they do. Well, Kroger, if that’s how you operate, I have a few things I’d like you to consider:

1. I have never been subjected to such a humiliating treatment in a grocery store, and I don’t think I deserved to be treated that way.
2. If the grapes had been part of a huge display, I would have been suspicious of the pricing too, but there were THREE BAGS of it in the produce area so I figured they were marked down because the store wanted to get rid of their stock. That’s nothing new to me; as far as I know marking down items for a quick sale is regular practice for stores anyway.
3. I understand that Kroger has a self-checkout system for at least 2 reasons:

a. They don’t want to pay for extra cashiers.
b. to satisfy customers who sometimes (like me) are in a hurry and would rather just check out themselves than wait in longer lines.

But what’s the point of saving money on cashiers if you’re (perhaps) losing money that you would need to hire people who are better suited for Customs work at the airport? And what’s the point of making your customers “happy” by allowing them to check out their own items and then turn around and practically accuse them of theft? Those two “Safety Committee” people didn’t say, verbally, that they suspected me of stealing, but they sure acted like it.

4. Kroger’s own cashiers sometimes do not enter in the right codes for produce. It’s happened to me several times in the past when I’ve had to call the cashier’s attention to the fact that the peppers or bananas I got were organic and not conventional. If you’ve got a problem with people not entering the right codes, maybe you shouldn’t be in the business of selling both organic and conventional items.
5. I understand that the self-checkout system is not foolproof and that some customers may try to take advantage of it by checking out organic items using a conventional code. That’s no reason to be suspicious of and penalize/humiliate honest customers.

It doesn’t make sense for a company of Kroger’s size to skimp on cashiers, pass along the responsibility of checking out to the customers themselves AND THEN install grocery police to make sure the customers aren’t stealing.

It is HORRENDOUS customer service and it leaves a really bad taste in the mouth. I shop at Kroger almost every week, and yes, I shop mostly organic items, because that’s what I prefer to feed my family. Before Kroger started carrying organic items I shopped at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Jungle Jim’s, my local farmers, and through the UNFI Food Co-op, and I still do, since Kroger has a limited selection of organic items anyway. If I have to, I’d rather go back to shopping at those places exclusively, where the customers are RESPECTED, not SUSPECTED. Saving 50 cents on peppers or 10 cents a pound on bananas is simply not worth the aggravation.

Kroger, if you’re losing money on organic items, re-evaluate your system and CHANGE IT. Retrain your cashiers and make sure they’re more careful about codes. Do away with the self-checkout lane if a considerable number of your customers are cheating you. But do not treat your customers like criminals. That’s simply not the way you do business.

Sincerely,