Kroger's Digital Struggle

https://joshstrange.com/2024/02/11/krogers-digital-struggle/

by joshstrange • 2 years ago

53 78 2 years ago

andrew_• 2 years ago

Possibly relevant, but they seem to have a hard time hiring and retaining talent. There's been a consistent player in my LinkedIn inbox from 2018 to present (even post-ZIRP) and that's Kroger engineering recruiters.

htrp• 2 years ago

Do you really think that SWE grads are lining up to work at Kroger?

simoncion• 2 years ago

If the money's right, they'll get enough folks to work for them.

Whoooooooooooooooooole bunch of people work at a whooooooooooooole bunch of places you've never heard of, man. There are so very many companies out there that employ programmers... it's nice if you can get a big Silicon Valley Darling on your resume, but not many folks can, so prestige isn't all that important.

sgerenser• 2 years ago

Definitely not. They’re all waiting for a call back from the tech giant known as Albertsons.

gamblor9562• 2 years ago

It's amusing that SWE grads are turning down a real company that provides actual value to millions of customers to work at startups that "dream of changing the world" with yet another social media app. Or AI app. Or whatever the latest silly tech fad happens to be.

No, groceries aren't sexy. But everyone needs to eat, and Kroger will be around long after all of the stupid startups these SWE grads choose to work for have died.

silisili2• 2 years ago

Just looked at their tech careers page.

Seems they want to pay folks < 100K onsite in LA? And only marginally more in Seattle?

Combine that with the fact the vast majority of jobs are hybrid in what appears to be middle of nowhere Ohio(Blue Ash, correct me if I'm wrong I'm looking at a map), I can take a few guesses as to why.

Uvix• 2 years ago

Blue Ash is a suburb of Cincinnati (where Kroger is headquartered), so not quite the middle of nowhere but also not exactly a tech hotspot.

datavirtue3• 2 years ago

You should go through their recruitment process,for fun.

They seem to be optimized for discarding the best candidates. It's comical.

wlesieutre• 2 years ago

I don’t hate Kroger’s app. If I’m at the store I can search for an item and find out what aisle it’s in. Complaints seem to be more about shopping online.

joshstrange3• 2 years ago

Can you see the aisle without first adding it to a list?

dunham• 2 years ago

It's showing the aisle in "search results". Details screens like "buy again" do not show the aisle. I have the mobile app in "in store" shopping mode with a store selected.

I used to use it to plan lists, but now I go straight to paper and only use it to look up sales and tag e-coupons.

antifa• 2 years ago

A few months ago, you could see the price in lists. Suddenly that stored.

fensterblick• 2 years ago

Heard a talk by their CEO and I was impressed by his focus on technology as a differentiator and competitive advantage.

I will also say that technology is more than just the website/app - it is also their supply chain and how they run the stores.

jldugger2• 2 years ago

Was it their earnings call? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-15/the-ceo-o...

bdavisx• 2 years ago

Forgot to mention their appallingly bad self-checkout systems - one of the worst I've ever used because of anti-theft measures. I will say I went to Schnuck's the other day and it was actually worse because of their UI.

notzane• 2 years ago

If you have 10+ items it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll need an attendant at some point. Also why lock out the whole system when you scan alcohol? Let me keep scanning and I’ll show ID when the person gets here.

xp844• 2 years ago

Hmm, I wonder if this varies from place to place. Ralph's imho has a very easy-to-use system as those things go. Better than costco (which with their receipt checkers, should really give you a gun and not require the placing of all those bulky cartons in the weighing area). Though not as good as target which seems to be the most friendly system.

kylehotchkiss2• 2 years ago

I want better for Kroger

Same company who avoided Apple Pay for years to push their ridiculous Kroger Pay.

datavirtue3• 2 years ago

Kroger == toddler-grade stubborn

xp844• 2 years ago

Ehh, it at least has its advantage, that you can apply loyalty and payment at the same time. I know Walgreens integrated their loyalty with Apple Wallet too, but in practice that means you have to (ensuring unlocked-ness both times) present the phone to the reader once before the cashier puts it into the payment "mode" and again after. KP is annoying that it takes a couple taps to get its barcode on your screen but at least it's one and done.

ars2• 2 years ago

You can link the loyalty to the credit card number. You can have more that one loyalty linked to it and just ask the user which one to apply it to.

HomeDepot and the USPS both will send me an email receipt and they remember my address when I put in a credit card.

lotsofpulp2• 2 years ago

Walmart/Home Depot/Winco are the only big Apple Pay holdouts that I know of now.

reaperman• 2 years ago

HEB as well.

kylehotchkiss2• 2 years ago

It's annoying but at least with Home Depot you enter your card number in the app and find receipts for all the home widgets you bought that you don't actually need

tiffanyh• 2 years ago

Instacart / Shipt

I’ve given up on using 1st party grocery store website/app.

I just use Instacart or Shipt now instead, due to better UI/UX.

Which is sad for the grocery store because it creates a situation of they become a nameless supplier & you longer have loyalty/affinity anymore.

joshstrange3• 2 years ago

I’ve considered it many times but they cost 25-30%+ more which I can’t stomach even with a better UI/UX.

seaal• 2 years ago

$100 instacart gift card for $80-$85 bucks from Costco and other retailers really helps bring down the cost difference for me.

specto• 2 years ago

Yeah you're paying so much over actual MSRP on everything it's sad

breather2• 2 years ago

Instacart's markup is insane, it's like DoorDash levels of extraction for some hitherto unexplained value they allege to provide.

jamesdwilson• 2 years ago

I mean, they are popular, right? Someone must be deriving value or else so many people wouldn't be using Instacart.

mcoliver2• 2 years ago

The coupon limit is annoying and not something enforced by all stores. For example Albertsons family stores are unlimited as are dollar general and rite aid. I wrote a chrome extension to clip all the coupons from major retailers across the us. Had to implement logic for places like Kroger that enforce arbitrary limits. It was also an interesting exercise because I noticed a few independent stores that seem to have worked with the same web developer who reused the same template.

https://throwlasso.com for anyone that's interested. It's completely free. Product feedback welcomed.

Operyl2• 2 years ago

Appears broken for Target right now.

mcoliver2• 2 years ago

Thanks for the heads up. They modified their UI to use "Apply" when previously it was "Save Offer". I have pushed an update. Usually takes google a couple days to approve. Will be v1.0.2.0

JohnFen3• 2 years ago

Albertsons family stores

For now. That will probably change if the deal for Kroger to purchase them goes through. It's getting more and more difficult to avoid shopping at a Kroger store.

alphabettsy• 2 years ago

Am I the only one who doesn’t like infinite scrolling?

pwg• 2 years ago

No. I quite hate it too.

loganc2342• 2 years ago

I agree. I’d rather click “load more results” once in a while than rage as I struggle to get to something in the footer I need to click on.

janeerie• 2 years ago

Yeah, if you have a functional footer, you can't have infinite scroll. This is why Kroger isn't doing it.

lagt_t• 2 years ago

I like "snappy" infinite scrolling for things like yt shorts/tiktok, hate it for long lists.

yellow_lead• 2 years ago

I especially don't like it on mobile because it can shift the entire view a lot more, and lead to misclicks. A misclick on mobile might take 2-3x the time to get back where you were compared to desktop.

JohnFen3• 2 years ago

You're not. Infinite scrolling has long been one of my pet peeves.

datavirtue3• 2 years ago

They are diametrically opposed to any and all change brought about by competition, technology, and the evolving marketplace. This opposition is so ingrained in their culture and leadership that, like a defiant toddler, this organization can't see past it's own neurosis.

samirillian• 2 years ago

It's articles like these that make me miss n-gate. Yeah Kroger, be more like Uber! You basically control a bloated gig economy with W2s!

UberFly• 2 years ago

I find their app so annoying to use as well. I don't have the energy to list all the things that drive me crazy, but I've gone back to just using a card for checkout and gas and resigned myself to just overpaying when there's a digital coupon. They push and push us to use their app and the experience is just torture.

throwaway892238• 2 years ago

It's a strange thing to watch someone admit their own ignorance, and then immediately disregard it, in order to make a case for something that they - by their own admission - can't possibly understand. It's a doublethink poem. I don't think; therefore, I am.

Perhaps the disconnect is his belief that "what I do know is technology and UI/UX." Perhaps he really believes he knows how to build technology like this. But his complaints are those of a person who clearly only thinks of technology, as technology. Not as the stupid redneck in Arkansas who needs to use a shitty mobile connection in order to find out if diapers are on sale yet; but as the lofty technologist, surveying the digital landscape from his 100-gigabit 16-cpu latest-generation pocket powerhouse, flicking through content faster than it can render, concluding that the technological marvel of dreary old-world tech to be wanting.

The poor fools! They don't understand what I, a technology UI/UX expert, want in a mobile app! How foolish that they have not implemented what their competition has. It can only be incompetence. Not to worry though. I, the technological wunderkind, will write a blog post. I will educate them on their shortcomings, and inform them of the correct path to profitability. It's my duty to help these poor sods realize the truth: that they are not yet advanced enough. But with my help, they'll get there.

alphager• 2 years ago

You wrote three long paragraphs without mentioning a single point where the big post was wrong or an explanation for one of the shortcomings. Impressive!

jldugger2• 2 years ago

Tech, let me introduce low margin retail. Kroger has a margin between 1 and 2 percent: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/KR/key-statistics (depending on your preferred measure). And yoy earnings are down.

And it's even worse in the delivery app subcategory. Why bother with that tech when Instacart etc are losing 3 dollars for every dollar they bring in? Seems like best case scenario you get to sell to their customers at full price and Instacart shareholders pay for delivery fees.

kube-system• 2 years ago

And a just couple percentage points higher in margins was enough to earn the name "whole paycheck".

panda888888• 2 years ago

Where I live, Kroger used to do their own delivery, but they've switched to Instacart for fulfillment now. I've stopped doing Kroger delivery because the Instacart people are WAY too annoying to deal with; I hate having to babysit every single decision the Instacart shoppers make. I would happily pay more for in-house Kroger shoppers, but there's no option to do so.

hnburnsy2• 2 years ago

Weirdly in Florida Kroger is doing grocery delivery via its own vehicles, but no Kroger stores exist in the state, only distribution centers.

nickthegreek• 2 years ago

At my Kroger in the midwest, you have the option for either. But you dont tip when you use Kroger and tbh, they do a much better job at picking out the items. If they went to Instacart only, I would cease to use the service.

bergenbergen• 2 years ago

if you live in Texas you will be aware that HEB has invested a lot into their homegrown app, and it really shows.

jimt1234• 2 years ago

I feel like the retail grocery industry as a whole is opposed to anything that doesn't get people into the stores, which are designed to maximize profits based on impulse buying. The industry dies without impulse buying. And I'm sort of an expert considering I worked at a grocery store in high school. LOLOLOLOL

dotBen• 2 years ago

Stores cost money to run. It costs money to move goods from regional warehouse to store.

At scale, on demand grocery delivery introduces significant efficiency which probably offsets whatever the reliance on impulse buys.

bentcorner• 2 years ago

My beef with Kroger (since I have nowhere else to put it) is twofold:

1. The Kroger sign on doesn't work with Firefox, so the in-app Kroger SSO thing doesn't work for me. I had to temporarily switch my browser to chrome to log in.

2. They changed the pickup method from sms to in-app. Problem is that not everybody who does curb-side pickup is the same person who has the app installed and logged in. I used to have my wife order and I could confirm presence for pickup from my phone (even a different number!). Now I need to tell my wife to log in, press the button, and tell her what stall I'm parked at.

Both of these didn't used to be a problem as of about a year ago, these are recent regressions in functionality.

thayne• 2 years ago

Not its fellow grocers, of which there seem to be few

And that's the key. There isn't any competition. Instacart and shipt aren't competition. You are still buying groceries from your local Kroger brand. What it would take to push for real improvement is if another grocery store had an app that was enough better than Kroger's that people preferred to shop at that store instead of Kroger's.

krosaen• 2 years ago

Hmm kroger delivery has been working well for me, and glad they are increasingly offering non instacart fulfillment. A little clunky in the UI? Fine, I’ll take that over a polished app that changes the prices on me.

creatonez• 2 years ago

Safeway has roughly the same level of UI awfulness. If the Kroger & Safeway grocery store megamerger goes through... this could disastrously multiply the UI disaster.

mooreds• 2 years ago

Great breakdown of the ux issues.

I wrote about the same service a decade ago[0]. Just re-read it and there has been progress!

0: https://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/1650

RecycledEle• 2 years ago

Kroger brought out their Reward card, which caused a large backlash.

Walmart just quietly tracked everyone in their computers without so much backlash.

I see a difference here.

Kroger's Digital Struggle

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