How often do we get paranoid and think we've been outted? It is easy to feel that way when we're asked to do seemingly unnatural things such as ask really stupid questions (stupid to us). As a 50-something I object to asking about the proper way to ripen bananas or which hamburger to use for tacos. I'm sure the dumb questions are equivalent to having "mystery shopper" written across my forehead.

Yesterday I did four Food 4 Less shops. Food 4 Less is Kroeger's low-end California chain. It is a lot like WinCo except half the size. Kroeger also has Ralphs, which is its California higher-end (depending on location) chain.

Well the acceptable questions to ask are aimed at Ralphs and not Food 4 Less, especially the deli and meat questions. I mean if you ask a Food 4 Less associate about "organic" you get a blank stare like they've never heard the term before.

Anyway, I was doing my shops yesterday and it seemed like the associates were being bombarded with similar questions from customers. We were all being a pain in the butt to these associates who really didn't want to deal with customers! And that reminded me that for the most part they never figure us out which is why they don't do what they are supposed to do week after week no matter how many times I shop them with dumb questions and report said blank stares.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2015 05:25PM by whiterosie.

Asking for organics at a Food 4 Less- sounds like a nightmare.

You have a choice of 4 questions - you don't have to ask about organics.

This is true but sometimes not a single question applies. I did learn the other day though that some Food 4 Less' are slightly more high end when near affluent neighborhoods. A store I shopped had a butcher and an organic section. Unfortunately, the five closest to where I live are geared for EBT clients. I picked the steak question, the orange question and the fresh or frozen chicken question. In other words I picked the easiest questions. Three out of four produce associates gave me the wrong answer; one of four deli associates gave me the wrong answer; and two of four meat department employees gave me the wrong answer.

I did ten of these the last period and the only one to get the pepper question correct was the Ralphs employee. Everyone else told me their hottest peppers were Jalapeños or Serranos with the Habaneros sitting right next to them. It was about 50/50 as to whether their meat had hormones or antibiotics or not. And when I asked which cheese would go best with their sliced roast beef, most said either "I don't know" or "I don't like roast beef.". One told me I should go buy my cheese at Stater Bros. (another Cali grocery chain). They are just not geared for these kinds of questions. I did have good luck though on how to pick and prepare a mango.

I wondered if all the Kroger chains have the same questions. Last week I went with: What's the hottest pepper you have?,
Do you have any healthier lunchmeats? and Does this meat have hormones in it?
My contacts answered pretty much the same across all stores, so I am guessing they are making sure they reference their house brand private selection or simply truth products.

Don't these people get any training at all? I recently asked what the difference was between this package of organic chicken and that package of natural chicken. The meat department employee told me there was no difference, that natural and organic are the same thing. Um.. no it's not.

Latest questions are out - I asked how to tell which seafood is sustainable and what does sustainable mean. There are signs right there behind the guy saying 'Sustainable Seafood' and he had no idea what I was talking about. He said 'the only fish we have is farm raised and wild caught.' I asked if any of it was sustainable and I got the blank stare. At the other store, the guy thought I was talking about naturally raised versus traditionally raised fish - super friendly and helpful and I learned a lot about what fish can be labelled 'Natural.' I couldn't see either of their name tags behind the counter - hopefully management can figure it out based on my description who needs to be updated.

At the other two stores, they both told me all Kroger seafood is sustainable and it is a real big deal for Kroger.

I've been identified at one of the Kroger stores I used to shop fairly regularly. The associate who identified me completely bombed one of the department questions, in a spectacularly hazardous-to-your-health kind of way.

I stopped shopping that location, but every two weeks I still go through and buy groceries there because it's not terribly out of my way. If the associate who identified me is there, I go chat with them and ask inane questions about the department just to mess with them. The worst part is that they have to know that's what I'm doing now, since I usually pick days when they're not being shopped or go outside of the accepted time frame, and none of the questions I ask are remotely close to the actual questions we're given.

@pyrofuego wrote:

I've been identified at one of the Kroger stores I used to shop fairly regularly. The associate who identified me completely bombed one of the department questions, in a spectacularly hazardous-to-your-health kind of way.

You could not have reported it as a wrong answer without describing the wrong answer in too much detail?

Instead of reporting:
Charlie from the meat department said that his favorite dish is steak tartare and the in store ground sirloin is so fresh it does not need to be cooked at all! He then gave me his personal steak tartare recipe.

Report This:
Charlie from the meat department clearly stated that certain ground meat products do not need to be cooked to the USDA recommendation of 160°F internal temperature.

First report is too much information and will out you as a shopper.

Second report is all the information you need to supply for them to retrain the employee and might not have outed you as a shopper. It's always tempting to add interesting very identifiable additional information, but that is how you loose repeat shops.

Or not being warned that most of the people at Food City do not speak English. One of the guidelines is to call the bakery to find out about ordering a birthday cake. I did several of the shops and every time the phone was answered in Spanish and the person had to go find someone that could speak English. I made about $.12 an hour on those shops after all the waiting. Lol

@scanman1 wrote:

You could not have reported it as a wrong answer without describing the wrong answer in too much detail?

Instead of reporting:
Charlie from the meat department said that his favorite dish is steak tartare and the in store ground sirloin is so fresh it does not need to be cooked at all! He then gave me his personal steak tartare recipe.

Report This:
Charlie from the meat department clearly stated that certain ground meat products do not need to be cooked to the USDA recommendation of 160°F internal temperature.

First report is too much information and will out you as a shopper.

Second report is all the information you need to supply for them to retrain the employee and might not have outed you as a shopper. It's always tempting to add interesting very identifiable additional information, but that is how you loose repeat shops.

My report was along the lines of the second, not the first.

That is interesting there were so many shoppers in the store at the same time as you. I do the Nob Hill shops and the scheduler doesn't assign me if there is already another shopper that day.

To me, those shops don't pay enough and I rarely do them. Once I did, and asked a meat guy something about cutting meat on the bias and he did not know. So he whipped out his cell phone, found a video on u-tube about it, and we both became experts on the subject. LOL I thought it was great and reported it. I dunno if it outed me, but the story had to be told.

I have yet to find the magic MSC who does grocery in our area, however, when you only have a Supercenter that limits things considerably.

Most of the people working in these store are high school or college age kids.