Who got the email just a few minutes ago? Any ideas?
78 replies (most recent on top)
Confirmed with a meeting held today that:
- It will start within the next month and continue for 3 years until the target numbers are hit.
- No frontline/store-level associates to be affected.
- No VRO.
- Severance will be given.
Hazier on these last two points:
- Sounded like managers will not be informed first, individuals will hear from HR directly. (Kind of contradicts an assurance that “great talent” can be lobbied for by managers and ‘up-skilled’ — How, if managers aren’t informed first?)
- “Notice will be given so people can plan,” whatever that means.
@e6 They Called It Simplification
There’s a word they used in that meeting. Simplification.
It’s a clean word. A boardroom word. It fits neatly on a slide and doesn’t make any noise when it lands.
Let me tell you what it sounds like in a kitchen at 11 p.m. It sounds like a parent doing the math on a mortgage. It sounds like a kid asking why Mom’s laptop is closed on a Tuesday. It sounds like 3,000 families learning that the work they built, the late nights and the missed recitals and the systems they made run, was never theirs to keep.
Three thousand corporate workers. More than a third of the people who make this company think. Phased out over three years and moved to the Kroger Capability Center in Bengaluru.
They’ll tell you it’s about survival. So let’s look at what they chose to survive on.
Seven and a half billion dollars, spent buying back their own stock. Not on stores, not on people, but on making a number go up.
Eight hundred million dollars spent on lawyers, bankers, and advisors for a merger with Albertsons that collapsed under its own ambition.
Billions more in liability, as Albertsons now takes them to court over the wreckage.
And the cost of keeping every one of those 3,000 Americans at their desks? About three hundred million dollars a year.
Sit with that. The buyback alone could have carried every one of those jobs for twenty-five years. A quarter century of paychecks, college funds, and Friday nights, traded for a stock chart.
This was never a question of whether they could keep you. It was a question of whether they wanted to. And now you have your answer.
To every person at Kroger and 84.51°:
You don’t owe loyalty to a company that budgeted you out. Loyalty is a two-way street, and they just closed their lane.
Use what you’ve earned. Take your PTO, your personal days, and your sick time. Those are wages they already owe you, not favors.
Give your hours, not your evenings. Do the job you’re paid to do, and nothing they’d need to pay someone else to do.
Tell the truth about what you’ve seen. Write it on Glassdoor, for Kroger and for 84.51°, so the next person who applies walks in with their eyes open.
And above all, take care of each other. Talk to your coworkers. Share leads, share referrals, share the number of a good employment lawyer. They are counting on you to scatter quietly. Don’t.
To every family that shops at Kroger:
A boardroom only hears one language, and it’s spoken in revenue.
If you have a Boost membership, cancel it, and in the box that asks why, write four words: Offshoring American jobs. Try the regional grocer, the farmers market, the store down the road. Let your receipts cast the vote.
This isn’t a left issue or a right issue. Ask anyone in any town if a profitable American company should ship thousands of jobs overseas while spending billions on its own stock, and you’ll get the same answer.
To the press and to those who represent us:
Ask the questions. Hold the hearing. Make them say simplification out loud, on the record, to the families it erased.
Media
Cincinnati Enquirer Tip Line: Submit a News Tip
Progressive Grocer Editors: gacosta@ensembleIQ.com | ecrowe@ensembleiq.com
Elected Representatives
Ohio Democratic Party: info@ohiodems.org
Ohio Republican Party: info@ohiogop.org
Cook County Democratic Party: info@cookcountydems.com
Chicago Republican Party: Jeff.Fiedler@ChicagoGOP.com
They expect us to sign the severance, lower our eyes, and disappear one by one.
But here’s what they forgot. Every system they’re about to ship overseas, we built. Every insight they sell, we found. Every number they’ll show investors next week, we made real.
They can move the work. They cannot move the people who know what this company was supposed to stand for.
So share this. Stand next to the person beside you. And let the word they chose, simplification, become the simplest truth of all:
When working people stand together, greed loses.
#BoycottKroger #StopOffshoring #KrogerLayoffs #WorkerSolidarity
@ca Harris teeter will never be integrated. HT is non-union and if merged with Kroger they'll be allowed to unionize
11k views, wow
@ca Yael and Jimmy will stick around until they're promoted to the C-suite. Yael already tried to promote himself once and had to walk it back once they canned Rodney.
Wonder if the layoffs will finally remove the redundancies caused by allowing Harris Teeter to remain on all their systems, for the last 12 years since Kroger bought them, instead of converting to the enterprise standards. How much longer must we suffer under the selfish mismanagement of Yael Cosset and Jim Clendenen?
Kroger has committed to spending $9.5 billion in share repurchases since December of 2024. They are not investing in the business.
TRICK OR TREAT!
@c6
That is exactly why you are here....spill it.
The company does not give two craps about us....
@c3 I'm not supposed to talk about it
I bet that stupid horse got shot after it won the race.
So they will layoff 3000 of the 8200 corporate employees over the next 3 years if I am understanding this correctly?
@by any updates? What was the meeting about?
when they said that GCC starts?
@bw about 8000
Notice he said they will start layoffs in the next couple of months. Merry Christmas
@bt this. And I'm sure anyone with any talent will be out the door in a few weeks. Next 3 years are going to be horrible.
I actually just got called into a meeting after this, wish me luck.
They made this announcement to get people to start quitting. Making their job easier
How many people work for corporate?
It has always taken a lot of will power to not yell go fu-k yourself whenever they tried to get us excited about GCC. Hopefully they stop that entirely now
What great news, I definitely want to give my 100% to the company now that I know 3000 people are getting laid off over the next 3 years!
Good uplift to end the day
@bq lol im sure this wont impact peoples work.
Here we go KCC and reductions - 3000 roles over the next 3 yrs
Not too much time left! Get your Kroger Brand popcorn ready!
Lmao anyone butthurt about working in office needs to find a new job. I personally will never in my next 40 years of employment work in an office. Your problems aren't our problems. Probably the same person that votes conservative and says "if you don't like it leave". Take your advice
I hear we are going to watch a horse racing video to motivate us
@bg “stop calling out the privilege I receive by working from home. It makes me feel bad”
@OP Kroger can’t execute any communication well. So it’s probably either Yael is getting canned or something stupid and trivial that they thought everyone should know and instilled unnecessary fear.
Please let them be offering VRO
@bf idk or you could stop crying and putting other down and ask why you need to be in person when this company offshores everything it can? Grow up
@an On-site associates have already taken a financial hit compared to remote associates. How is it equitable for both groups to receive the same percentage increases when on-site associates also bear the time and expense of commuting daily?
I would like the same opportunity to work remotely without sacrificing annual merit increases. The current 60-mile requirement limits that flexibility, despite the previous option to remain remote rather than relocate by summer 2025. I would love greater consistency and fairness in how these policies are applied.
Maybe guys they are just announcing a company wide pizza party! I want pepperoni!
Does anyone have any (realistic) numbers on number of departures since the GCC was announced? more of a curious thing.
@b5 no they didn’t.
I'm so glad I put in my 2 weeks. I'm sick of the games and fear tactics. If the job market wasn't trash way more people would've already left.
Not lay offs. Just got confirmation
A warn notice gets filed the exact same time the employees are notified, so it would not show up yet.
Now I doubt its a layoff. Ive heard mentions from addressing the crazy amount of exec talent leaving to the cage free eggs... lol
@b5 liar. Just checked Ohio's Warn notices and there aren't any. Unless it's closing down of Ocado sheds.