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Kroger's Digital Struggle

joshstrange.com

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Re: Kroger's Digital Struggle

#61

Post by jstarfish »

gamblor956 wrote: post #54
htrp wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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 h…

Kroger was at one time remarkably progressive.

Back in 1992(!) they rolled out a smart-cart system that I can't find any references to because its new (2021) release dominates the SEO.

It was an LCD tablet mounted to the cart that would let you look items up, see a map of the store, and (I think?) play trivia games. I think they showed ads too when idle IIRC.

If you knew to look for them, there were stalactite-looking antennas hanging from the ceiling in a grid pattern all over the store to do triangulation.

It was pretty nifty until they stopped maintaining it.

Re: Kroger's Digital Struggle

#62

Post by dotBen »

jimt1234 wrote: post #44

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

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.

Re: Kroger's Digital Struggle

#64

Post by panda888888 »

jldugger wrote: post #33

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 a…

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.

Re: Kroger's Digital Struggle

#65

Post by JohnFen »

gamblor956 wrote: post #54
htrp wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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 h…

Many SWE grads (and even many established devs) seem to have a rather large blind spot. They tend to think that working for an overt software company (and especially a SV-style company) is the only real option.

The reality is that lots of different industries employ software engineers, and many/most of those industries are doing really cutting-edge and interesting things, often much more interesting than your standard SV-style software company.

Re: Kroger's Digital Struggle

#67

Post by hnburnsy »

panda888888 wrote: post #64
jldugger wrote: post #33

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 a…

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.

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

Re: Kroger's Digital Struggle

#68

Post by buggeryorkshire »

vgeek wrote: post #37
silisili wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I'm not super well versed in Cinci and didn't mean to insult them as a city, but it seems like Blue Ash is 15 miles from the city center and 30 miles to the airport. Seemed kinda far out accounting for traffic and such. Or is it one of those cities where more is going on in the suburbs than the city proper(lived in one of those myself)?

Blue Ash is a more educated/affluent suburb with significant P&G and Kroger facilities. Probably preferable to a 1hr each way (typical for many suburbs to downtown) commute and paying for parking. Downtown Cincinnati is kind of boring-- there have been a few new places open, but there are better choices for food and entertainment in various other neighborhoods. I had an interview at Kroger HQ out of college and it wa…

Dunnhumby is owned by Tesco in the UK afaict. Kroger is just a customer.

Re: Kroger's Digital Struggle

#69

Post by Tagbert »

janeerie wrote: post #51
loganc2342 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

I’ve seen sites with both a footer and infinite scroll. It is amusing an infuriating to get close enough to the bottom of the scroll area to see the footer peaking out just before the next block of content loads and pushes it out of sight. It would make Kafka smile.

Re: Kroger's Digital Struggle

#70

Post by vgeek »

buggeryorkshire wrote: post #68
vgeek wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blue Ash is a more educated/affluent suburb with significant P&G and Kroger facilities. Probably preferable to a 1hr each way (typical for many suburbs to downtown) commute and paying for parking. Downtown Cincinnati is kind of boring-- there have been a few new places open, but there are better choices for food and entertainment in various other neighborhoods. I had an interview at Kroger HQ out of college and it wa…

Dunnhumby is owned by Tesco in the UK afaict. Kroger is just a customer.

Yep, they sold DunnhumbyUSA to Kroger and rebranded to 84.51. They used to have a super visible building right by Fort Washington Way (downtown interstate) and moved closer to Kroger HQ maybe 8-10 years ago after the sale. They still did other shopper card analytics type work, but they are pretty much only Kroger brands (and associated suppliers-- think typical CPG companies) at this point.
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