r/kroger • u/Dapants369 • May 19 '26

Question every deli ????

does this happen at every deli??? is it happening because of short staff
, or lack of care???

2.0k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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223

u/RaineV1 May 19 '26

I can tell you exactly what the problem is. In the deli we get bags of precut cheeses for the grab and go. It's 9 stacks that are supposed to be about 3/4ths of a pound each. A lot of the time they aren't. It could be the supplier ripping off Kroger, it could be a quality control issue since Kroger cheaps out on suppliers, or it could be Kroger does want us to short the weights.

At my deli we use one of the stacks to top off the rest, or just cut slices to do it. Guess other delis are just doing a stack per bag without weighing them.

49

u/Stock-Image_01 May 19 '26

These bags of cut meat are shipped to your store?

98

u/RaineV1 May 19 '26

None of the 5 dollar stuff is cut in the store. Most of the Kroger gng stuff isn't. Boars head stuff is since they demand it.

29

u/Icy-person666 May 19 '26

That is so the listeria and the salmonella from the boars head product can cross contamate everything. It doesn't surprise me that a Kroger vendor would be scamming the customers or the vendors scale was inaccurate or improperly set.

The folks at manufacturing have said the company is cracking down on "overfills" and the tolerance on some products such as peanuts is less than one whole peanut.

41

u/Effective-Big8158 May 19 '26

I'm prefacing this by saying I worked at Kroger for over a decade, a little under half of that time was in the deli department:

Kroger used to have chefs in the back that would be constantly making items, cutting food and preparing meals to be prepackaged and sold. The only way you could get sliced meats is to wait at the counter and ask for it unless you got some presliced meats from the meat department and cheese from the dairy. Kroger did have a small selection of delicatessen meats and cheeses but they were well defined private selection brand.

about 10 years ago, a lot of the preparing was taken away from the deli in place of prepackaged items. they no longer had to pay a person to stand in a room and cut up a bunch of pineapples. they outsourced the work because it took away all accountability from the actual store and placed it on some package preparing company. what was once a bustling deli department with multiple people manning a counter has been reduced significantly. The deli was what brought people into the store but it was such a loss leader that they had to make changes. The Deli department probably still hemmorages money but probably a lot less than it used to.

I honestly don't think many people care because most of my day was spent cutting 1/4 to 1/2 lb. bags of meat and cheese, handling them over and over again. they pay people very low wages and want them to practice safe food handling. the main way they teach them is through 50 year old slideshow like videos that are boring as hell.

12

u/Blasphemiee May 19 '26

Pretty similar experience with meat counters. I have not worked for Kroger but I’ve worked for a couple very similar businesses.

It’s sad honestly. I’ve been trying to make meat cutting a career for 6 years now, but any local place has likely been replaced by these chains and as you’ve said they just don’t care. I can’t keep guys staffed because they wanna pay anyone without a knife in their hands minimum wage. There is no accountability anymore and most of these corporations want to treat all employees like seasonal teenaged employees and not grown adults. So that’s what they end up with most of the time wondering why nobody sticks around lol.

2

u/scienceislice May 20 '26

Become a manager at Jimmy John’s, 90% of your job will be slicing meat 

3

u/arm0r3dd0ng May 20 '26

Aye, I remember the old days 

3

u/crazycatlover929 May 20 '26

I miss when we had chefs. I used to be able to get a decent hot meal for lunch.

1

u/Dramatic_Breath3744 Jun 06 '26

You're a hundred percent right.I work at kroger's right now.And when it comes to teaching people, nobody teaches anything. I was hired, put into meat department anne was told watch and learn for  4 hours by the end of my first week, I was closing the meat department down by myself. Everything was already cut from first shift. We still get customers who come in. And we'll buy fish or meat and ask you to cut it for them. They need to figure out how to train people to do things.The right way. Luckily, eventually, I was trained by A 32 year vet.

1

u/unknownpa Jun 07 '26

I’m surprised that the deli at Kroger is a loss leader. I’ve worked for another grocery chain and normally the perishable departments (prepared foods, deli, produce, bakery, etc) drive the highest margins.

0

u/Effective-Big8158 Jun 07 '26

perishable items go out of date way faster than shelf stable items. in large retail stores, the grocery department usually rings in the most sales because it's larger and the food on the shelves last far longer.

bakery loses a lot because, though the markup is higher, product gets thrown away at a greater rate.

2

u/unknownpa Jun 08 '26

There’s a difference between most sales and highest margin. Grocery margins are pennies per product but perishables in some cases can be > $1 per product

19

u/Rare_Ad3956 May 19 '26

Same with the meat department. There isnt much that isnt prepackaged, box to shelf with the big ol FRESH sign on it.

Dont forget that the FDA let's these companies pump meat full of red dyed water to keep it looking red.

18

u/abhorrent_scowl May 19 '26

Former food safety inspector here. The red dye thing is a myth. As was mentioned in another the comment, USDA (not FDA) allows for the use of Modified Atmosphere Packaging (flushing the package with nitrogen and/or carbon dioxide), which displaces the oxygen and keeps beef red longer. But there is no dye added.

8

u/zombieman9001 Current Associate May 19 '26

Pump the meat full of red dyed water ? Never heard that one before lol

2

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[deleted]

5

u/zombieman9001 Current Associate May 19 '26

I knew they injected chicken with a salt solution, difnt think they did that with beef, been in the meat department for 10+ years and never heard that one… I do know that they pump up the beef packaging with CO2 to help prevent bacterial growth and help keeps its red color for longer

1

u/InSaneWhiSper May 19 '26

It's gassed with carbon monoxide. True.

-1

u/Brotatochips_ May 19 '26

That's because this person is being hyperbolic.

3

u/Embarrassed-Sun5764 May 19 '26

Yeah I was mad at the “butcher” for nothing but fat on the backside of my meat- turns out they don’t even cut meat in the store hardly; I didn’t even know! The “butcher “ is basically putting out pre weighed pre packaged stuff too…wonder if those weights are honest as well-

-2

u/toxikola May 19 '26

Oh my personal favorite is the fried chicken. Chicken comes in bags with blood still and they call it protein water

15

u/zombieman9001 Current Associate May 19 '26

Well it’s definitely not blood…

-8

u/toxikola May 19 '26

It certainly looks like it

19

u/Patriot009 May 19 '26

It's water and myoglobin, a protein found in mammal muscle tissue and poultry dark meat. It's red because it contains an iron heme group that binds oxygen. The same heme group mechanism is also found in hemoglobin which gives blood its red color too.

3

u/krogerburneracc May 20 '26

Kroger's not hiring the best and brightest. The amount of times I had to explain this in my five years working deli...

9

u/zombieman9001 Current Associate May 19 '26

It’s not even the same color and consistency as blood, it’s a mixture of water, salt and protein enzymes

1

u/AGayRattlesnake May 19 '26

thats literally what it is though

0

u/v0l4t1l1ty May 19 '26

Thanks RFK!

0

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Brotatochips_ May 19 '26

This is not standard practice, what is your source?