* If you look on the list of reviews here in Glassdoor you will see that more than half of the reviews made by "co managers" have 2 stars or less. What does that tell you?
** Co-manager has the highest turnover percent in the entire Kroger Co. It is above 50%. And there's good reason(s) why.
I did their training program called MD1 a few years back, and let me tell you something. It is absolute rubbish! I'll tell you everything you should know about Kroger's management program, how it works, the truth behind doors, and why you should steer clear.
*Be careful what you tell people. Not everyone who smiles at you is your friend. Gossip is all over Kroger.
On your first day, you will be lucky if the store manager is even aware of your new employment as a trainee at their store.. Other co managers of that store will know nothing about it. Who you are, why you're there, what to do...nothing. The store manager is supposed to be your "mentor manager", but don't expect him/her to have anything prepared for you that week working with him side by side. They will not want to make time for your questions.
The so called "core values" you hear about redundantly are never disclosed or discussed with the associates. The farthest they may go is to departmental heads. And do you even think the deli clerks, cashiers, produce clerks etc. would even care about that considering how little they're paid?
A few weeks into the program you will go to the regional office of your districts where you will sit for 10 hours a day listening to Kroger's plans of wishful thinking on how they're going perfect the business. They're goal is to have customer satisfaction levels for all stores to be a whopping 80% by sometime in 2015. Impossible. Most stores are lucky if they can hit 70%. Some are even below 60%. It's a fantasy world of perfection at the office.
When you return to your store, you'll have around 100-150 papers to organize and plan out all on your own how you're going to complete your tasks.The store manager will know nothing about what you just learned at the divisional office and what your assignments are.
Oh and they talk about surpassing Wal-Mart soon. Sure, Wal-Mart's net revenue for 2013 was over $16 billion. Kroger's was $1.5.
Kroger is in the Top 10 Lowest paying companies in America. Right there next to Wal-Mart.
You will get constructive criticism always, not compliments. You may have done something correct, but when it's reviewed by management they will look for the negatives in it.
You will have nearly 100 online lessons and you can't jump to the quiz at the end.
Your base pay will be $40k, but there is an overwhelming amount of stress and work to get it.
You will always work 6 days a week and overtime which means nothing when you're salaried, Don't count on holidays either.
There is extreme favoritism and prejudice in Kroger. If your manager doesn't like you for any reason, he will find a way with minutia to get rid of you. I was once written up for taking my tie off in a bakery assignment.
Promotion within the company is very limited. Kissing butt in upper management is how it's done.
So, like I've said above Kroger sucks. A co manager job is good for a person who started in their teens, knows people from all around the district and is pseudo friends with the store manager and district manager . This is no job for a recent college grad with a BBA or similar.