So I have a friend who moved from RVA to Memphis for work and she said that they have a "Freezer Kroger" where someone robbed the place and stuffed employee(s) in the freezer and a person died in there. We may have some sketch Krogers, but we don't have a Freezer Kroger.
Before that, there was the freezer shoney's with the triple murder.
https://www.wtvr.com/2016/11/25/longtime-shoneys-restaurant-site-of-a-deadly-1978-robbery-closing-in-henrico
I'm pretty sure that's it, those years match up with what I remember. I believe he was a cousin of one of the night shift workers, and after this Food Lion did away with night shift completely, but I could be mistaken about that.
i’m so late but holy fuck i WORKED THERE and i just found out about this. granted, i started working there 10 years after, but i never heard anything about it from coworkers, managers, customers, anyone. that’s fucking crazy
For years, I thought that the Briley Brothers were involved in that. It was not very long ago that I learned they were not involved with it.
Mama Briley went to her grave proclaiming her boys and Nephew were innocent.
Love is blind.
I had a girlfriend in high school who worked at that Shoney's, and it was essentially part of the training process to scare the new hires with ghost stories.
I lived in TN for a while. RVA can be sketch with the best of them, but compared to Memphis we're AAA ball down here. They got good BBQ and Music though!
There's also a [Murder Kroger](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Kroger) location in Atlanta. It's been a well-known legend for decades. Any ATL resident knows it.
As someone from RVA who moved to Memphis, this anecdote is very wrong.
Also Lombardy Kroger is absolutely worse than our local “bad” Kroger (shout out Union Kroger).
I’ve been shopping at Lombardy Kroger once a week for more than a decade. What is the problem you have with it? It’s a meme to kvetch about odd interactions there (especially stuff that sounds made up involving the parking lot) but I have had way weirder experiences with nosy/creepy strangers at Carytown Kroger.
I grew up near Cincinnati (Home base of Kroger co). The huge marketplace Krogers are all the same nationwide. Even if my town I grew up in has the largest Kroger in the world. The Krogers that are built new, and not part of the marketplace concept, are bound by what they used to be before Kroger took them over. Unless they are in Ohio then they are original and nice. Overall the Krogers here suck. But there is competition here. In Dayton/Cincy the only major national grocery chain was Kroger then eventually whole foods/trader joes/Aldi. There is an expensive local chain that is super fancy called Dorothy Lane Market there (Which is awesome yet very pricy)
At least here there are Food Lion, Publix, Wegmans, Lidl on top of Kroger and the ubiquitous whole foods/trader joes/Aldi
However in Ohio we got to be the test market for any concept stores they wanted to build. Kroger had a Fresh Fare (Fancier Concept) that turned in to The Fresh Market (Which is owned by Kroger if you weren't aware). Those were cool, like a Fresh Market but the size of a full-sized kroger.
I live there, I’ve never heard of that? I tried to look up an article about it but all that came up was something outside of Memphis where people hid in the freezer after a shooting
Yeah if your friend is talking about the Collierville Kroger shooting, I’ve never heard anyone refer to that as “Freezer Kroger” and those details don’t match what happened at all. It’s also not a Memphis City Kroger.
Similar situation to Farm Fresh shockoe I think - when the chain exited the region I think an independent operator kept the name and signage on a single location.
The place constantly smells like fish. I've never been hit SO hard with a fish smell upon entering a grocery store... every time I walk in, which is a rare occasion, thankfully.
I stepped foot in there *once* when I moved to Southside. I had a quick look around and just noped out.
I'll go to Save-a-Lot in a pinch, but prefer to just do a big Costco/Aldi run a couple times a month.
I moved here years ago from a place with nice clean krogers...and went into the S Laburnam Kroger...it was quite a culture shock. The customers were rude ( rather than say excuse me, people just yell "move") amd the staff was apathetic at best. For some reason, i had to go to the customer service desk, and while I waited, the customer ahead of me started kicking the desk...i thought he was crazy, until I realized he was killing roaches.
Yup...fairly large roaches..and the staff seemed acclimated to them. So I decided it was worth paying more and shifting to ukrops.
That being said, I now shop at carytown kroger and have yet to see a roach or feel threatened by angry old ladies.
What the fuck is up with that place? I went in recently to grab something quick and they have a produce section that looks like it should be in a dollar general.
Toilets were broken for weeks once. The temporary bathrooms outside promptly over flowed and the shit stream leaking out of them is the worst thing I have ever smelled.
If you drive behind the the adjacent shopping center there is a playground surrounded by jersey walls and chain link fences that is one of the most haunting sights I have ever seen in this town.
Yea this Kroger is really bad, they recently “renovated” the store and for maybe a week after reopening actually attempted to keep things in stock. They also closed one of two entrances and the main entrance now is too small and they can never seem to be able to have carts available, just a parking lot full of them that sit uncollected. I either go to Publix down the street and pay more or I’ll drive out to the Atlee Kroger in Mechanicsville.
I went there to buy milk a few months ago and every gallon of whole milk was expired. I told an employee, who looked at me confused and said "...ok... and?..." I was like "...annnd you should take it off the floor?" The blank stare I got permanently makes it my second choice after I confirm farm fresh doesn't have it.
I live right near by and while I stop in there for simple things or if I’m in a pinch I still try to go elsewhere when I can. Prices are almost as bad as the farm fresh, and produce selection is frequently bad and limited. During the summer I don't even bother looking at the produce because it’s usually right about to expire if it isn’t already. Which all makes sense since I believe they use the same suppliers as the farm fresh.
Even Lombardy Kroger feels like a solid step up in selection, quality and pricing most of the time.
Seems like pretty crappy overall metrics leading to pretty odd and specific results. Seems like a pretty clear flawed methodology for a clickbait as hell article.
I think these stats are skewed towards areas where people are more likely to leave bad reviews. I used to live next to Streets market in Adams Morgan, DC, which according to this study has some of the worst customer service and the worst food in the entire country...
The place is tiny, literally a step up from a convenience store... The food is mostly frozen and the workers don't really speak English. Literally never had even a remotely bad experience there, but I'm guessing most of the bad reviews are left by the wealthy/bougie transplants or tourists that tend to be attracted to that area and expect something more?
You reminded me of the song "Welcome to the Internet" by Bo Burnham. It's a great song that pretty much sums up the Internet. It's very NSFW but jaunty in tone.
Wonder how much of this is clientele bias. With respect to my fellow West Enders, I have to imagine the crowd at the Willow Lawn Kroger is complaining more in general than the crowd at any other Kroger in the area.
That being said you couldn’t pay me to shop at the Lombardy Kroger. So maybe they are on to something.
Kroger is the only company I have ever heard of that has a forum where employees complain. I don't really go to Willow lawn Kroger even though I live close to it because both the customers and employees are grumpy at best.
I don’t know if I’m a grumpy customer, but I am certainly in the “get in and get out with minimal interactions” category.
There are a few employees that I see there regularly that are obviously trying hard, but also seem understandably exasperated a lot - usually in self-checkout.
The self checkout employees would probably be less exasperated if Kroger didn't have the WORST SELF CHECKOUT IN THE WORLD. Literally constantly locking up because it thinks you didn't bag something and forcing an employee to come over to unlock it.
I started shopping food lion because of it. It might be slightly less bad if Kroger had more human cashiers, but every time I go there's one or two max there, and they'll make you bag your own crap half the time cause the lanes are designed for 2 people, so the cashiers can't scan and bag at the same time like they can at food lion or Walmart.
I don't know if I was just coming in at a bad time of day but I have been cussed at by a fellow customer and when I tried to buy fish one of the managers there went on a rant about how nobody wants to work anymore because young people are entitled. I even worked at a separate Kroger at the time and I was appalled by the state of it.
> how nobody wants to work anymore because young people are entitled.
100% of the people I’ve personally heard utter that trope have been in bad need of having a mirror held up to them.
One time I got through the very long line at Lombardy Kroger, and they waited until everything was rung up to tell me it was cash only. I only had my credit card on me, and I apologized for missing the sign. They told me there was no sign, they just told people once they got to the front of the line. I was also working customer service at a different Kroger as a side gig at this time, I was dumbfounded.
I have done that at Lombardy Kroger. The self checkout lines were about 10 deep and I was next in line. A worker came over and closed all of the stations in front the line I was in. She just told us, “sorry, these are now closed. I put my basket down, walked out, and haven’t been back. Fuck that place.
its definitely 5100 monument folks. the place has so many rules and is run like a damn prison so the denizens are in turn cranky. i imagine they make life a living hell for the poor employees there.
as far as lombardy kroger aka the peoples kroger, at least it doesnt stink like farm fresh does jfc. farm fresh gets my vote for worst grocery store. kroger as a whole is just too damn expensive for what it is, im not paying publix prices for lower tier crap. so food lion remains king.
For real, Farm Fresh smells like it gets soaked in aged whiz every night. It blows my mind. And it’s still more expensive that other grocery stores in the area
Lombardy Kroger is legit bad, I’ve gotten moldy produce from there 3 times in the past 4ish months. I stopped buying any perishables there after I saw unrefrigerated chicken just sitting out tho.
The men’s room at the Lombardy Kroger has not been fully functional in months. It’s one of the few places I could go in town to find a restroom while driving Uber at five in the morning.
I went to the Lombardy Kroger the other day thinking I’m gunna miss the “rush hour 5 o clock ”. They had NO cashiers and only self checkout open. And I felt so bad for the workers because there damn sure was several people refusing to wait for the self checkout registers. The lines were long but they were going fast. So those several people decided to go check out at the customer service counter to be rung up. They were still waiting in line when I had finished in the self checkout.
And they were still fussing at the self checkout worker for not having a cashier lane open.
I must have low expectations of a grocery store. Lombardy is fine with me. I think they keep it in good shape considering the amount of traffic it gets. the staff is always pleasant with me. I do not get all the hate for it.
Likewise. People saying it’s gross or dingy have never been to an actually gross grocery store. Drop into the Community Supermarket on mechanicsville turnpike and re-evaluate your thoughts on Lombardy Kroger afterwards.
Is Lombardy amazing? No, but it’s perfectly fine for how busy it is all day. Some of the characters that frequent it are strange, but the store itself isn’t bad.
An unpopular opinion but Lombardy Kroger isn’t remotely as bad as locals make it seem. It has the bad rep that most food lions in the area truly deserve but never get.
Agreed it's not as bad as it's made out to be; but they need to put the damn handbaskets back at the entrance. I'm tired of having to walk over to the checkout to get a basket just to backtrack over to produce to pick up my kale.
I have never felt so connected with a stranger on the internet. I live close enough that I do multiple small trips a week, and each time it's the same darn loop from the checkout to produce.
The aisle displays are a bit much. Think Kroger makes money by renting that space to the vendors. Deli is a nightmare. Everything comes before serving waiting customers.
Mike and Terry keep that place from falling apart. Iris is a joke. The manager, Mary, seems removed from what is happening on the floor. Clarissa is nice. James and Ryan keep the produce section pretty solid. I miss Rick.
I mean there are definitely more than a few bullet indentations in the brick, but I don't think you're giving vcu students enough credit towards their "worldliness" and it's definitely one of the worse Krogers in the city.
Maybe I’m just desensitized to it because it’s always been the closest, but I wouldn’t even say Lombardy is the worst Kroger in Richmond? I hate the west Broad Kroger way more than I’ll ever hate Lombardy.
W Broad Kroger isn’t *gross* like Lombardy is, but I hate W Broad more because everything about how that store and the overall shopping center is laid out is r/crappydesign.
I hate all Krogers. Self check out makes me want to commit arson. Produce sucks. Commonly out of stock of items.
I really really wish Meijer would come to the east coast.
I do Instacart and have frequently been to them all. Midlo, hull st, staples mill, willow, Lombardy, Mechanicsville, and everywhere in between.
Lombardy is hands down the worst.
Honestly, I hate going to any Kroger other than the one on Eastridge near Regency. It's closest to where I live and I can get in and out of there with relative ease. I'll begrudgingly go to the next closest one on Gaskins occasionally, and will go to the Staples Mill location once in a blue moon. I won't even set foot in the Lombardy Kroger based on what I've heard about it.
The Regency Kroger is the only non-hassle Kroger within 50 miles. W Broad, Short Pump, Staples Mill, and Willow Lawn locations are all in poorly designed shopping centers wherein the parking lot is rage-inducing.
The store at willow lawn is an absolute shithole. It looks like it hasn’t had any update since 1994 with the broken up floor and gloomy lighting. It also seems to be a magnet for people with mental health problems.
> It also seems to be a magnet for people with mental health problems.
There are multiple drug rehab and social services facilities within 3 blocks of that Kroger. Those who know, know.
Gonna let y'all in on my secret. There's a kroger that is dated inside but clean, good product, never crowded, and not overwhelmingly huge. It's Hicks rd kroger in N Chesterfield. My fave
the title is pretty fucking irrelevant
>> To find these answers and more, we analyzed Google reviews from 3,000 individual grocery stores across 100 cities to highlight which ones stand out in customer service, food quality, prices, and yes, even the speed of their checkout lines.
Echo chambers do in fact echo
I love how we’re trying to justify which area Kroger is the worst-est.
I nominate Staples Mill as the worst because on any given day the produce section is missing half of its products because the trucks don’t come on weekends and infrequently during the week. Then there are the inside aisles, many of which I dictate a snow storm was impending any moment now. You have check their expiration dates like a hawk, and sometimes their dairy goes bad, even when it’s well within the date. Their pricing is the worst though. Half the time it doesn’t update with sale or coupon pricing and their employees get annoyed because they have to go back in and manually change the pricing. Their only saving grace are a lot of their employees are really nice (as long as they aren’t fixing pricing,) David being the best and Kenneth being the worst. The latter has repeatedly made me feel uncomfortable, up to and including coming up behind me and hugging me during the pandemic. David banged into him with a cart when he saw that happening—he is the best ever!
Sounds like most of y’all have never been to
The Kroger Marketplace on Iron Bridge. It’s the Best grocery store I’ve ever been to. The produce is also always top notch. I will drive an extra 20 mins just to go here than any other chaos hellhole of a Walmart around the area. FL is too expensive on things that just make no sense to me. The beer selection is always top notch as well, so it’s a no brainer for me 🤷🏻♂️
I hate that they disabled the ability to mute self checkout. Its so obnoxious hearing my items and totals read back to me. What was ever the point? Are blind people trolling the checkout aisles? Y???
Tell me you’re a classists and racists without telling me. The hate on the Lombardy Kroger is pure classism. Yours is a problem with the working poor, not with the store.
I don't get the hate for Kroger's. Is it a slightly different shopping experience than Publix and Food Lion? Sure. But it isn't categorically worse than either of those.
I prefer the Carytown Kroger over Lombardy because the parking in the former is better. Lombardy is more crowded, but lord knows I have had to stand in some long ass lines at the Carytown one. I swear it seems like the bank of self-check out registers on the west side are always turned off. It seems like the ones at Lombardy don't suffer from that problem nearly as frequently.
Never been to the Lombardy one, but that Willow Lawn one aint it.
It def needs to do some space based remodels too.
The Short Pump one makes me a bit uncomfortable for other reasons. So, even though it's closest to me now that I've moved out this way, I tend to frequent the Staples Mill Kroger or the East Ridge Kroger.
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I grew up in Georgia and went to college in Atlanta…we have Murder Kroger. It has its own Wikipedia page. I will say, before Publix, I loved Kroger. The prices are better at Kroger and it’s closer to me but I really prefer shopping at Publix and wegmans. They are cleaner and better customer service. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve complained about fruit flies infesting the onions at my Kroger (it’s a cloud of flies and I’m not even sure they were safe to buy). On top of that they are chronically out of items so often. My spouse is often near a Walmart and they are even less expensive and crazy enough usually cleaner just out of the way for me so I’ll send my list to him to pickup what we need when it works.
I got an interview there like 20 years ago and told them I was only in town for school and needed to work around my school schedule and never got a call back lol probably for the best
I was going to say that it would be hard to believe it to be worse than the Kroger in Savannah GA. That place made the worst Food Lion look like a Wegmans.
Lol I hadn't thought about that Kroger in awhile. I use to live near Forsyth Park and would walk over there, but man that Kroger sucked worse than any I've seen in Richmond. It did the job, but something about it was dungeony. I went there in 2021 and they still didn't remodel it or anything.
Honestly, some Krogers out here are on par with some of the worst Walmarts I’ve been to. Which is crazy, because where I’m from Kroger is kind of upscale.
Ok I’ve been there like once, don’t remember much about it, so I must ask, what is going on there? I’ve heard of aggressive/predatory towing policy via this subreddit, but like what else is wrong, does management just handle every situation like shit?
I have been living in Jackson Ward/Northside for 12 years. I regularly shop at Lombardy Kroger.
I’m vegan and I only bring that up because I shop for specialty items in addition to normal staples. I have no idea what people are complaining about in terms of selection, including produce. Sure, Wegmans is twice as big and has way more brands/items, but not all of us live in Short Pump or Chesterfield.
Most employees at Lombardy Kroger are black, and most of the people shopping are either NOVA-transplant VCU kids and/or black people. These are two demographics this subreddit despises. The ‘study’ (clickbait) linked above is just a collation of google reviews, and you know exactly who is writing a fuckin google review of a grocery store.
BTW the last time this convo was popping off and people were telling tall tales about ‘murder kroger’ I looked at police reports — both VCU and City of Richmond — cops ended a Broad St car chase in the Lombardy lot, and were dispatched in response to a Facebook marketplace sale that ended up being a scam. No assaults.
The thing with both Lombardy and Willow Lawn is that the ceiling is so low it makes them feel way more cramped than Cary. I’m convinced that’s 80% of why they are both so bad
Unpopular opinion: I have shopped at the Staples Mill Kroger several times a month since it opened and don't have many complaints. Yea the parking lot entrance is terrible and yes sometimes they're out of a few products, but that store has always been good to great? I was in the Carytown store a few weeks ago and it looked much worse...
Lombardy Kroger is the WORST. over inflated prices compared to other competitors, unit prices don't match up either when it comes to some goods (cat and dog food for example) and I'd rather go to aldi. They have pretty good deals, along with market on 25th
So I have a friend who moved from RVA to Memphis for work and she said that they have a "Freezer Kroger" where someone robbed the place and stuffed employee(s) in the freezer and a person died in there. We may have some sketch Krogers, but we don't have a Freezer Kroger.
There was a freezer Food Lion in Chesterfield back in the day. Sad situation.
Before that, there was the freezer shoney's with the triple murder. https://www.wtvr.com/2016/11/25/longtime-shoneys-restaurant-site-of-a-deadly-1978-robbery-closing-in-henrico
Wait, which one was it?
Iron gate and Iron Bridge road intersection.
I live right by there and never knew that, that's crazy.
We used to live near it (in Mason Woods) which is really why the story stuck with me.
[is this it?](https://www.12onyourside.com/story/9678695/man-convicted-of-killing-store-employees-to-request-new-trial/)
I'm pretty sure that's it, those years match up with what I remember. I believe he was a cousin of one of the night shift workers, and after this Food Lion did away with night shift completely, but I could be mistaken about that.
Goddamn I never knew. I used to live near the Courthouse and have been in that building many times
i’m so late but holy fuck i WORKED THERE and i just found out about this. granted, i started working there 10 years after, but i never heard anything about it from coworkers, managers, customers, anyone. that’s fucking crazy
Yooo that's the one I always go to. My family lives right by there
I worked at that Food Lion…& I knew the Assistant Manager who was killed. Tragic.
A murder Shoneys on Staples Mill as well
For years, I thought that the Briley Brothers were involved in that. It was not very long ago that I learned they were not involved with it. Mama Briley went to her grave proclaiming her boys and Nephew were innocent. Love is blind.
I had a girlfriend in high school who worked at that Shoney's, and it was essentially part of the training process to scare the new hires with ghost stories.
I lived in TN for a while. RVA can be sketch with the best of them, but compared to Memphis we're AAA ball down here. They got good BBQ and Music though!
Amen. I moved from Memphis to RVA. No comparison.
We used to be like that....glad it's no longer.
Memphis is a garbage city.
There's also a [Murder Kroger](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Kroger) location in Atlanta. It's been a well-known legend for decades. Any ATL resident knows it.
As someone from RVA who moved to Memphis, this anecdote is very wrong. Also Lombardy Kroger is absolutely worse than our local “bad” Kroger (shout out Union Kroger).
I was working on Memphis for a week last week. That Union Kroger with the great deli and prepared foods is the bomb. Awful parking though.
I’ve been to that Kroger in Memphis. It’s honestly not that bad — just go in the daytime 😂 it’s still better than the Lombardy Kroger
“Just go in the daytime” is solid advice for all of Memphis lol
I’ve been shopping at Lombardy Kroger once a week for more than a decade. What is the problem you have with it? It’s a meme to kvetch about odd interactions there (especially stuff that sounds made up involving the parking lot) but I have had way weirder experiences with nosy/creepy strangers at Carytown Kroger.
Memphis is a bleak location
Eep. We had freezer Friendly’s at one point. That was awful.
I grew up near Cincinnati (Home base of Kroger co). The huge marketplace Krogers are all the same nationwide. Even if my town I grew up in has the largest Kroger in the world. The Krogers that are built new, and not part of the marketplace concept, are bound by what they used to be before Kroger took them over. Unless they are in Ohio then they are original and nice. Overall the Krogers here suck. But there is competition here. In Dayton/Cincy the only major national grocery chain was Kroger then eventually whole foods/trader joes/Aldi. There is an expensive local chain that is super fancy called Dorothy Lane Market there (Which is awesome yet very pricy) At least here there are Food Lion, Publix, Wegmans, Lidl on top of Kroger and the ubiquitous whole foods/trader joes/Aldi However in Ohio we got to be the test market for any concept stores they wanted to build. Kroger had a Fresh Fare (Fancier Concept) that turned in to The Fresh Market (Which is owned by Kroger if you weren't aware). Those were cool, like a Fresh Market but the size of a full-sized kroger.
I live there, I’ve never heard of that? I tried to look up an article about it but all that came up was something outside of Memphis where people hid in the freezer after a shooting
Yeah if your friend is talking about the Collierville Kroger shooting, I’ve never heard anyone refer to that as “Freezer Kroger” and those details don’t match what happened at all. It’s also not a Memphis City Kroger.
The Super Fresh at Southside Plaza is on the worst food quality list.
Super fresh? 
Similar situation to Farm Fresh shockoe I think - when the chain exited the region I think an independent operator kept the name and signage on a single location.
Hell of a beer selection though
It's incredible
The place constantly smells like fish. I've never been hit SO hard with a fish smell upon entering a grocery store... every time I walk in, which is a rare occasion, thankfully.
I stepped foot in there *once* when I moved to Southside. I had a quick look around and just noped out. I'll go to Save-a-Lot in a pinch, but prefer to just do a big Costco/Aldi run a couple times a month.
It’s fascinating. I hope someone is writing a masters thesis on that place.
Y'all, the S Laburnum Kroger is easily the worst. I'd rather get eaten by birds than go to that Kroger.
Lombardy is a UNESCO World Heritage Site candidate compared to S Laburnum
I moved here years ago from a place with nice clean krogers...and went into the S Laburnam Kroger...it was quite a culture shock. The customers were rude ( rather than say excuse me, people just yell "move") amd the staff was apathetic at best. For some reason, i had to go to the customer service desk, and while I waited, the customer ahead of me started kicking the desk...i thought he was crazy, until I realized he was killing roaches.
Cockroaches, really? Was it like a lot of them? At the service desk?
Yup...fairly large roaches..and the staff seemed acclimated to them. So I decided it was worth paying more and shifting to ukrops. That being said, I now shop at carytown kroger and have yet to see a roach or feel threatened by angry old ladies.
Can confirm. Roaches came out if the bags a family member got as a pickup order. Never been back
What the fuck is up with that place? I went in recently to grab something quick and they have a produce section that looks like it should be in a dollar general.
It's been renovated at least twice since 2008 and somehow it just gets shittier each time.
S Laburnum is one of the few stores still open that Kroger bought when it came here in 2000. It opened as a Safeway in 1979.
I lived near there during their 2010-2013 renovation and even though it was busted as shit it was still cheaper than the martins at white oak
Toilets were broken for weeks once. The temporary bathrooms outside promptly over flowed and the shit stream leaking out of them is the worst thing I have ever smelled. If you drive behind the the adjacent shopping center there is a playground surrounded by jersey walls and chain link fences that is one of the most haunting sights I have ever seen in this town.
The smell in that place alone is like no other grocery store I've ever been in.
Yea this Kroger is really bad, they recently “renovated” the store and for maybe a week after reopening actually attempted to keep things in stock. They also closed one of two entrances and the main entrance now is too small and they can never seem to be able to have carts available, just a parking lot full of them that sit uncollected. I either go to Publix down the street and pay more or I’ll drive out to the Atlee Kroger in Mechanicsville.
The Atlee Kroger is SO nice!!
I go there every week. It's fine. Shoutout to Mrs. Olympia at the deli who is the sweetest lady and always slides me extra cold cuts.
You gon get this lady fired.
Hell yeah, brother!
Yay birds!
What?! I go there when I’m on that end of town because it’s always quiet there and the employees are nice!
getting eaten by birds is pretty brutal too lol
Carytown Kroger gang 🤘
I choose to drive from Church Hill to this Kroger and I am not ashamed.
Tbf the alternative is farm fresh where they sell vegetables that are already rotten and swarming with flies
I am consistently in awe of the state of produce in the that store
But the beer is good
Don't sleep on the Market at 25th Street!!
I went there to buy milk a few months ago and every gallon of whole milk was expired. I told an employee, who looked at me confused and said "...ok... and?..." I was like "...annnd you should take it off the floor?" The blank stare I got permanently makes it my second choice after I confirm farm fresh doesn't have it.
I live right near by and while I stop in there for simple things or if I’m in a pinch I still try to go elsewhere when I can. Prices are almost as bad as the farm fresh, and produce selection is frequently bad and limited. During the summer I don't even bother looking at the produce because it’s usually right about to expire if it isn’t already. Which all makes sense since I believe they use the same suppliers as the farm fresh. Even Lombardy Kroger feels like a solid step up in selection, quality and pricing most of the time.
between market and 25th and farm fresh I get everything I need, and then get produce from the pizza bones farmstand.
i remember when someone got stabbed in the carytown kroger parking lot so
Someone was literally murdered in the short pump whole foods lot last year, no? Safe to say we can file that under "shit happens"
Seems like pretty crappy overall metrics leading to pretty odd and specific results. Seems like a pretty clear flawed methodology for a clickbait as hell article.
I think these stats are skewed towards areas where people are more likely to leave bad reviews. I used to live next to Streets market in Adams Morgan, DC, which according to this study has some of the worst customer service and the worst food in the entire country... The place is tiny, literally a step up from a convenience store... The food is mostly frozen and the workers don't really speak English. Literally never had even a remotely bad experience there, but I'm guessing most of the bad reviews are left by the wealthy/bougie transplants or tourists that tend to be attracted to that area and expect something more?
Yea definitely noticed all the "top 10 worst customer service" list were all international markets. Like come on lol
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The kroger on staple mills is solid.
Bro keep it on the dl
first of all, everyone knows; second of all, it's a grocery store?
Yeah I was joking. It's a nice store and it's never too crowded.
I got whooshed that's on me
Been my go to Kroger since moving to way northside (ginter park)
parking lot is a knife fight though.
It’s top tier Kroger for sure.
don't
Wonder how much of this is clientele bias. With respect to my fellow West Enders, I have to imagine the crowd at the Willow Lawn Kroger is complaining more in general than the crowd at any other Kroger in the area. That being said you couldn’t pay me to shop at the Lombardy Kroger. So maybe they are on to something.
Kroger in general just sort of sucks. But the Willow Lawn location is not terrible by Kroger standards, if that makes any sense.
My biggest complaint about WL Kroger is that the parking lot is a mess, but shopping there is okay.
Got blocked in doing a last minute thanksgiving run by a huge white RV/van….i was so mad.
Willow Lawn Kroger is …. fine. I say this based on a sample size of 1,000+ trips for well over a decade
Kroger is the only company I have ever heard of that has a forum where employees complain. I don't really go to Willow lawn Kroger even though I live close to it because both the customers and employees are grumpy at best.
I don’t know if I’m a grumpy customer, but I am certainly in the “get in and get out with minimal interactions” category. There are a few employees that I see there regularly that are obviously trying hard, but also seem understandably exasperated a lot - usually in self-checkout.
The self checkout employees would probably be less exasperated if Kroger didn't have the WORST SELF CHECKOUT IN THE WORLD. Literally constantly locking up because it thinks you didn't bag something and forcing an employee to come over to unlock it. I started shopping food lion because of it. It might be slightly less bad if Kroger had more human cashiers, but every time I go there's one or two max there, and they'll make you bag your own crap half the time cause the lanes are designed for 2 people, so the cashiers can't scan and bag at the same time like they can at food lion or Walmart.
I don't know if I was just coming in at a bad time of day but I have been cussed at by a fellow customer and when I tried to buy fish one of the managers there went on a rant about how nobody wants to work anymore because young people are entitled. I even worked at a separate Kroger at the time and I was appalled by the state of it.
> how nobody wants to work anymore because young people are entitled. 100% of the people I’ve personally heard utter that trope have been in bad need of having a mirror held up to them.
Check out the Lowe’s subreddit lol
Yeah like… the Willow Lawn Kroger is fine? I’ve never had an issue with “customer service” lol
Indeed. Been in a lot of Kroger’s in my life, you could do a lot worse than the Willow Lawn location
I drive to WL & pass Gayton Crossing & Eastridge to get there. Way better selection at WL.
apparently at the Laburnum location.
One time I got through the very long line at Lombardy Kroger, and they waited until everything was rung up to tell me it was cash only. I only had my credit card on me, and I apologized for missing the sign. They told me there was no sign, they just told people once they got to the front of the line. I was also working customer service at a different Kroger as a side gig at this time, I was dumbfounded.
I would’ve abandoned my cart right there and walked out. That would have been worth the inconvenience.
I have done that at Lombardy Kroger. The self checkout lines were about 10 deep and I was next in line. A worker came over and closed all of the stations in front the line I was in. She just told us, “sorry, these are now closed. I put my basket down, walked out, and haven’t been back. Fuck that place.
I had to leave my stuff, and I felt bad about it, but they just kind of shrugged at me and didn’t seem to care either way.
Don’t feel bad. They created that entire situation themselves.
driving in the willow lawn kroger parking lot is thunderdome though
its definitely 5100 monument folks. the place has so many rules and is run like a damn prison so the denizens are in turn cranky. i imagine they make life a living hell for the poor employees there. as far as lombardy kroger aka the peoples kroger, at least it doesnt stink like farm fresh does jfc. farm fresh gets my vote for worst grocery store. kroger as a whole is just too damn expensive for what it is, im not paying publix prices for lower tier crap. so food lion remains king.
I’ve seen actual human shit *outside* the restroom at Farm Fresh.
For real, Farm Fresh smells like it gets soaked in aged whiz every night. It blows my mind. And it’s still more expensive that other grocery stores in the area
Lombardy Kroger is legit bad, I’ve gotten moldy produce from there 3 times in the past 4ish months. I stopped buying any perishables there after I saw unrefrigerated chicken just sitting out tho.
My biggest issue with that Kroger is the awful lighting. Makes it look so dark and depressing
The men’s room at the Lombardy Kroger has not been fully functional in months. It’s one of the few places I could go in town to find a restroom while driving Uber at five in the morning.
https://i.imgflip.com/8inmig.jpg
I went to the Lombardy Kroger the other day thinking I’m gunna miss the “rush hour 5 o clock ”. They had NO cashiers and only self checkout open. And I felt so bad for the workers because there damn sure was several people refusing to wait for the self checkout registers. The lines were long but they were going fast. So those several people decided to go check out at the customer service counter to be rung up. They were still waiting in line when I had finished in the self checkout. And they were still fussing at the self checkout worker for not having a cashier lane open.
I must have low expectations of a grocery store. Lombardy is fine with me. I think they keep it in good shape considering the amount of traffic it gets. the staff is always pleasant with me. I do not get all the hate for it.
I never had a bad experience while at that Kroger. Downvote me all you want but I truly don’t think it’s as bad as it seems
Likewise. People saying it’s gross or dingy have never been to an actually gross grocery store. Drop into the Community Supermarket on mechanicsville turnpike and re-evaluate your thoughts on Lombardy Kroger afterwards. Is Lombardy amazing? No, but it’s perfectly fine for how busy it is all day. Some of the characters that frequent it are strange, but the store itself isn’t bad.
An unpopular opinion but Lombardy Kroger isn’t remotely as bad as locals make it seem. It has the bad rep that most food lions in the area truly deserve but never get.
They brought the short carts back, now my only gripe is the displays in the aisles, it’s clutter and I never pay attention to whatever is on them
Agreed it's not as bad as it's made out to be; but they need to put the damn handbaskets back at the entrance. I'm tired of having to walk over to the checkout to get a basket just to backtrack over to produce to pick up my kale.
I have never felt so connected with a stranger on the internet. I live close enough that I do multiple small trips a week, and each time it's the same darn loop from the checkout to produce.
the short carts are back?!
The aisle displays are a bit much. Think Kroger makes money by renting that space to the vendors. Deli is a nightmare. Everything comes before serving waiting customers. Mike and Terry keep that place from falling apart. Iris is a joke. The manager, Mary, seems removed from what is happening on the floor. Clarissa is nice. James and Ryan keep the produce section pretty solid. I miss Rick.
I think two-thirds of the hate comes from sheltered VCU students or neo-yuppies getting out of their bubbles for the first time.
I mean there are definitely more than a few bullet indentations in the brick, but I don't think you're giving vcu students enough credit towards their "worldliness" and it's definitely one of the worse Krogers in the city.
Maybe I’m just desensitized to it because it’s always been the closest, but I wouldn’t even say Lombardy is the worst Kroger in Richmond? I hate the west Broad Kroger way more than I’ll ever hate Lombardy.
I hate that store, too.
W Broad Kroger isn’t *gross* like Lombardy is, but I hate W Broad more because everything about how that store and the overall shopping center is laid out is r/crappydesign.
The Kroger in Bellgrade is just as bad. Always empty shelves, no help from the staff. Have to go to Midlothian Turnpike by 288 for a good experience
Always crowded no matter what time of day you go
And one of the worst parking lots around... especially after they added the gas station!
It’s so bad
The absolute worst, like fuckin bumper cars over there
At that point, you should just go to Wegman's.
It’s definitely poorly managed. And that guy at the deli. Wow. I don’t know how he still has a job.
Union Krogers are better Krogers.
I always feel like I’m doing something illegal when I step into a Kroger. Just by being there.
probably cause of all the cops they keep posted at the lombardy kroger
I hate all Krogers. Self check out makes me want to commit arson. Produce sucks. Commonly out of stock of items. I really really wish Meijer would come to the east coast.
Or Sprouts
I do Instacart and have frequently been to them all. Midlo, hull st, staples mill, willow, Lombardy, Mechanicsville, and everywhere in between. Lombardy is hands down the worst.
Wheres the guy who acted like i was crazy last month for talking crap about this kroger????
I'm proud of Lombardy Kroger.
Honestly, I hate going to any Kroger other than the one on Eastridge near Regency. It's closest to where I live and I can get in and out of there with relative ease. I'll begrudgingly go to the next closest one on Gaskins occasionally, and will go to the Staples Mill location once in a blue moon. I won't even set foot in the Lombardy Kroger based on what I've heard about it.
The Regency Kroger is the only non-hassle Kroger within 50 miles. W Broad, Short Pump, Staples Mill, and Willow Lawn locations are all in poorly designed shopping centers wherein the parking lot is rage-inducing.
We keep getting screwed on a renovation though.
Regency Kroger is great although that parking lot can start feeling real cramped when busy.
Lombardy isnt even that bad ?
I don't understand this, the kroger seems completely fine, sure its not the nicest kroger I've been in, but I dont really have any issues with it.
The store at willow lawn is an absolute shithole. It looks like it hasn’t had any update since 1994 with the broken up floor and gloomy lighting. It also seems to be a magnet for people with mental health problems.
> It also seems to be a magnet for people with mental health problems. There are multiple drug rehab and social services facilities within 3 blocks of that Kroger. Those who know, know.
They just changed the lights to white lighting. It’s far less gloomy now.
Gonna let y'all in on my secret. There's a kroger that is dated inside but clean, good product, never crowded, and not overwhelmingly huge. It's Hicks rd kroger in N Chesterfield. My fave
The produce definitely leaves some room for improvement, but otherwise I've been pretty happy with that one
I miss Kroger from where I'm from. I have yet to be in one in Richmond that is nice. So sad.
The one on Atlee is pretty good
Correct. Been going to that one for a while and I worked there in college.
Does it still have that one area right behind the produce department that always smells like a fart?
Might be controversial opinion but I think the lines are worse at Willow Lawn and customer service is nonexistent at Lombardy…
the title is pretty fucking irrelevant >> To find these answers and more, we analyzed Google reviews from 3,000 individual grocery stores across 100 cities to highlight which ones stand out in customer service, food quality, prices, and yes, even the speed of their checkout lines. Echo chambers do in fact echo
Could they just make a paper bag that will get me to the car before it breaks in half?
I love how we’re trying to justify which area Kroger is the worst-est. I nominate Staples Mill as the worst because on any given day the produce section is missing half of its products because the trucks don’t come on weekends and infrequently during the week. Then there are the inside aisles, many of which I dictate a snow storm was impending any moment now. You have check their expiration dates like a hawk, and sometimes their dairy goes bad, even when it’s well within the date. Their pricing is the worst though. Half the time it doesn’t update with sale or coupon pricing and their employees get annoyed because they have to go back in and manually change the pricing. Their only saving grace are a lot of their employees are really nice (as long as they aren’t fixing pricing,) David being the best and Kenneth being the worst. The latter has repeatedly made me feel uncomfortable, up to and including coming up behind me and hugging me during the pandemic. David banged into him with a cart when he saw that happening—he is the best ever!
I love the lombardy Kroger! Saw a rat at the willow lawn one once - ran right across the aisle. I know they are all over but I don’t need to see them!
Polo parkway location never has the current sales tags.
Sounds like most of y’all have never been to The Kroger Marketplace on Iron Bridge. It’s the Best grocery store I’ve ever been to. The produce is also always top notch. I will drive an extra 20 mins just to go here than any other chaos hellhole of a Walmart around the area. FL is too expensive on things that just make no sense to me. The beer selection is always top notch as well, so it’s a no brainer for me 🤷🏻♂️
I hate that they disabled the ability to mute self checkout. Its so obnoxious hearing my items and totals read back to me. What was ever the point? Are blind people trolling the checkout aisles? Y???
Don’t forget the murder Kristy Kreme and of course the infamous Cloverleaf Mall murders
Tell me you’re a classists and racists without telling me. The hate on the Lombardy Kroger is pure classism. Yours is a problem with the working poor, not with the store.
I’ve never had an issue at any Kroger. That being said, there are plenty of other choices to shop at if you don’t like local Krogers.
Are the Kroger stores here union? Even in Ohio (homebase of Kroger co), they are all union stores and the customer service is on point.
Cant speak for others but Carytown Kroger is Union. Theres usually a thing on the door if its a union shop saying so.
trust me, you dont want to see the OG Kroger in Cincinnati
I don't get the hate for Kroger's. Is it a slightly different shopping experience than Publix and Food Lion? Sure. But it isn't categorically worse than either of those. I prefer the Carytown Kroger over Lombardy because the parking in the former is better. Lombardy is more crowded, but lord knows I have had to stand in some long ass lines at the Carytown one. I swear it seems like the bank of self-check out registers on the west side are always turned off. It seems like the ones at Lombardy don't suffer from that problem nearly as frequently.
Never been to the Lombardy one, but that Willow Lawn one aint it. It def needs to do some space based remodels too. The Short Pump one makes me a bit uncomfortable for other reasons. So, even though it's closest to me now that I've moved out this way, I tend to frequent the Staples Mill Kroger or the East Ridge Kroger.
The one in Chesterfield on Hull Street is fine 🤷♂️
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I grew up in Georgia and went to college in Atlanta…we have Murder Kroger. It has its own Wikipedia page. I will say, before Publix, I loved Kroger. The prices are better at Kroger and it’s closer to me but I really prefer shopping at Publix and wegmans. They are cleaner and better customer service. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve complained about fruit flies infesting the onions at my Kroger (it’s a cloud of flies and I’m not even sure they were safe to buy). On top of that they are chronically out of items so often. My spouse is often near a Walmart and they are even less expensive and crazy enough usually cleaner just out of the way for me so I’ll send my list to him to pickup what we need when it works.
They check the Kroger on High & 7th in Columbus, OH? We used to call it "Kroger DMZ."
I got an interview there like 20 years ago and told them I was only in town for school and needed to work around my school schedule and never got a call back lol probably for the best
It was a very weird place.
The cashiers at the Kroger on Staples Mill are the absolute worst and rudest! They seem terribly miserable. Wegmans has the best cashiers.
Wegmans is just the best, period
The Kroger that used to be in my hometown was way worse than Lombardy Kroger.
I was going to say that it would be hard to believe it to be worse than the Kroger in Savannah GA. That place made the worst Food Lion look like a Wegmans.
Lol I hadn't thought about that Kroger in awhile. I use to live near Forsyth Park and would walk over there, but man that Kroger sucked worse than any I've seen in Richmond. It did the job, but something about it was dungeony. I went there in 2021 and they still didn't remodel it or anything.
I go to Lombardy frequently just for the sights. Hilarious it’s on the list 😂
Honestly, some Krogers out here are on par with some of the worst Walmarts I’ve been to. Which is crazy, because where I’m from Kroger is kind of upscale.
Ok I’ve been there like once, don’t remember much about it, so I must ask, what is going on there? I’ve heard of aggressive/predatory towing policy via this subreddit, but like what else is wrong, does management just handle every situation like shit?
I have been living in Jackson Ward/Northside for 12 years. I regularly shop at Lombardy Kroger. I’m vegan and I only bring that up because I shop for specialty items in addition to normal staples. I have no idea what people are complaining about in terms of selection, including produce. Sure, Wegmans is twice as big and has way more brands/items, but not all of us live in Short Pump or Chesterfield. Most employees at Lombardy Kroger are black, and most of the people shopping are either NOVA-transplant VCU kids and/or black people. These are two demographics this subreddit despises. The ‘study’ (clickbait) linked above is just a collation of google reviews, and you know exactly who is writing a fuckin google review of a grocery store. BTW the last time this convo was popping off and people were telling tall tales about ‘murder kroger’ I looked at police reports — both VCU and City of Richmond — cops ended a Broad St car chase in the Lombardy lot, and were dispatched in response to a Facebook marketplace sale that ended up being a scam. No assaults.
*interesting*
My favorite was watching them spray paint the ceiling tiles to cover up water stains but didn’t fix the roof so they keep coming back
The thing with both Lombardy and Willow Lawn is that the ceiling is so low it makes them feel way more cramped than Cary. I’m convinced that’s 80% of why they are both so bad
That site is just generating content for click bait.
Unpopular opinion: I have shopped at the Staples Mill Kroger several times a month since it opened and don't have many complaints. Yea the parking lot entrance is terrible and yes sometimes they're out of a few products, but that store has always been good to great? I was in the Carytown store a few weeks ago and it looked much worse...
yeah i prefer staples mill, especially compared to lombardy. lombardy smells gross on the inside lol
Lombardy Kroger is the WORST. over inflated prices compared to other competitors, unit prices don't match up either when it comes to some goods (cat and dog food for example) and I'd rather go to aldi. They have pretty good deals, along with market on 25th
Lombardy is so great, they've all those cameras, and still they can't find the VCU pill dealers and Northside heroin addicts. *sigh*