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Report: #526669

Complaint Review: Smith's Food and Drug - Evanston Wyoming

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  • Reported By: Ashboarder — Evanston Wyoming United States of America
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  • Smith's Food and Drug 70 Yellow Creek Rd Evanston, Wyoming United States of America

Smith's Food and Drug a division of The Kroger Co. Poor treatment of employees Evanston, Wyoming

*Consumer Comment: Here's your answer.

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Very true!

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The upper-level management (especially the assistant manager, Larry Berg) at the Smith's Food and Drug, a division of The Kroger Co., in Evanston, Wyoming treats employees very poorly.  The morale at the store is horrible as a result.  The store director, Toni Bradford, is a nice person in general but has a "don't bug me" attitude.  Any employee complaint is shrugged off and she simply responds that the person is "lucky to have a job" and "I have dozens of applicants on file who would love to take your job."  Larry Berg has an "I'm better than you" attitude and plays favorites.  He talks down to most employees and finds constant fault.

Neither Larry nor Toni will give any praise for a job well-done.  Larry unashamedly gives select employees preferential treatment.  For example, a newly hired single young man (Perry) was brought in off the street as a customer service manager.  He was promised 40 hours per week and is the only hourly employee to receive 40 hours.  At the same time, most every other employee is constantly having their hours cut to the point that they can't make ends meet and they struggle to support their families.  Ironically, Perry brags to other employees about his regular marijuana usage and about being able to beat the drug test.    Other employees joke that he is treated like Gods gift to Smiths. 

The morale in the store is dismal at most.  Larry is an unbending, unresponsive, and dictatorial boss.  No respect is shown toward employees, with the exception of his favorites like Perry.  Toni and Larry's management style is dysfunctional in regard to employees that try hard to be loyal and dependable but have their morale crushed instead.  Employees talk amongst themselves about their frustrations but do not dare reveal those feelings to management for fear of losing their jobs.  Unfortunately, Evanston is a small town with little to no employment options. 

The low workforce morale is showing up in reduced employee performance as would be naturally expected.  However, instead of getting a clue and realizing that their authoritarian based command and control management style is to blame, Toni and Larry force their puppet department managers to demand employees straighten up (and make them look good) or lose their job.  

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/20/2009 11:24 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/smiths-food-and-drug/evanston-wyoming-82930/smiths-food-and-drug-a-division-of-the-kroger-co-poor-treatment-of-employees-evanston-w-526669. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
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#2 Consumer Comment

Here's your answer.

AUTHOR: slc.munoz - (USA)

POSTED: Sunday, December 27, 2009

"Perry brags to employees about his regular marijuana usage and about being able to beat the drug test."

If you want change, be the change.

Don't stand by and let a no good drug abuser believe he is at the top, when he isn't. After all, he's just a manager at a food & drug store. Let this be known to upper management and get him out of there. If they fail to do so, then go above the management there!

You're being treated poorly because you choose to be treated poorly. Take the initiative and do something about it.

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#1 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Very true!

AUTHOR: Blue Bull - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, December 27, 2009

I ran across this and am glad to see someone else telling the story about Smith's in Evanston.  I agree with everything 100%.  I am not with the company anymore myself and a huge part of that is my horrible experience there.  In my career I've worked for top-tier companies like the corporate offices of JCPenney, CNA Insurance, and Beal Bank.  I have always loved each and every job and had a great experience with my jobs and managers.  That is until I started at Smith's.  Being a Kroger store, I thought it would be a good place to work.  I actually came to like Toni as a store director over the course of time, even though she wasn't always fair from the standpoint of listening to your side of the story.  She always took what Larry or Des said as gospel truth.  I have been accused of things that simply were not true but felt powerless to defend myself because of the way things were at the store.  Larry has got to be the worst manager I've ever worked with by a long shot.  He has no respect for employees and every other employee said the same thing.  He talks down to people and acts like he is so superior.  He always walks around glaring at people.  On more than one occasion, he was rude to my wife and glared at her when she was shopping.  No matter what I did, it was never good enough.  It did not matter that customers really liked me and constantly complemented me on the service I provided.  Providing excellent customer service did not seem to matter.  I definitely had my morale crushed by him.  Unfortunately, I did allow that to hurt my own speed at the register, but I did build it back up just before leaving.  And, boy did Larry ever play favorites.  I prefer to not say anything negative about the new CSM, but he was definitely treated like the golden child.  One Friday during a huge rush of customers, Larry took the new CSM for a 3 hour walk around the store...all the while Larry had only scheduled 2 cashiers and 2 baggers.  Do you think I would get a thank you for keeping things going despite being incredibly short-handed...Nope.  Ever get a complement for all the things I did well...Nope.  I always took pride in a job well done.  I have my performance evaluations from my other jobs that always rated me as exceeding expectations.  I did a much better job than I was ever given credit for at Smith's.  Des in HR was also basically mean to employees also, which was ironic considering she was human resources.  It all boils down to Smith's being a total nightmare experience for me, and apparently many others.  One thing that was painfully obvious at Smith's in Evanston also, if you grew up in Evanston and were from a family that grew up there, you were treated so much better.         

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