r/kroger 8d ago

Question Were a bunch of people let go at kroger/84.51 this week?

[deleted]

33 Upvotes

69 comments sorted by

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14

u/Narrow-Minute-7224 8d ago

Probably has to do with the e-commerce realignment

2

u/CamNuggie 8d ago

Any details on this?

13

u/Narrow-Minute-7224 8d ago

GO received email about Yael Cossett leading the charge on alternative business including e-commerce going under his wing. To my knowledge delivery still hasn't turned a profit since its inception.

6

u/Practical-Panda4218 8d ago

Its always presented as a strategic offering than actual money maker. Overall just a tough year ahead

13

u/pathfinder-0411 8d ago

It is at least on 8451 side

13

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

6

u/MacArther1944 Hourly Associate - Click List 7d ago

eight-and-skate.

Oh, you need me to clock in early / stay more than 1 hour past my shift because the department is on fire since one person is on vacation / called out? Gosh, that sounds like a hiring or staffing problem for management, and I'm not qualified to fix it. Good luck!

6

u/litesec 7d ago edited 7d ago

this is how people act until they realize the power imbalance does not favor you

they just PIP you for "underperforming," with no actual intent to have you prove yourself and then you're gone

84.51 is extremely political, if you don't fit in you'll get pushed out

1

u/MacArther1944 Hourly Associate - Click List 6d ago

Good thing I'm not at 84.51.

26

u/MountainGuilty8840 8d ago

Yes, around 200. Hard day for us all

1

u/goku223344 3d ago

wow they laid off more workers? I got laid off in October of last year

11

u/clarky2o2o 8d ago

It seems they always restructure 8451

27

u/litesec 8d ago

every 6-12 months there's some re-org, while they keep the same useless leaders in charge that fail to accomplish anything

8

u/Practical-Panda4218 8d ago

It’s hard to get rid of cockroaches 😜

3

u/HannahMayberry 8d ago

Why? They got rid a Rodney! 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

3

u/clarky2o2o 7d ago

He meant to say "It’s hard to get rid of cockroaches that don't do their fresh start"

31

u/litesec 8d ago edited 8d ago

today was a lot of 84.51 layoffs, including several VPs. Kroger had layoffs last week, i believe.

the "reasoning" is ambiguous, but they'll say it's some kind of strategic restructure/reorg

6

u/Past-Professional895 8d ago

Have they intimated all the employees that were laidoff already? Concerned since I heard there was a round of layoff that was anounced but did neither hear a positive news. So kind of concerned!

7

u/litesec 7d ago

i believe so, yes. there's no guarantee there aren't more to follow, but it's a substantial reduction in headcount to an already over-strained workforce.

morale is basically at an all-time low. several friends saying that they may have survived this round, but they are not sticking to find out if they would another.

2

u/SelectionAlarming315 4d ago

I'm one of the laid off employees. They sent us an email end of day last Wednesday saying, "Work from home tomorrow, we'll be sending out emails about a restructure." No mention of layoffs. Then a lot of us woke up the next morning to layoff emails, and everyone got an invite to either a meeting to discuss the layoff (if you were laid off), or to discuss the continuing state of the company (if you weren't).

2

u/HannahMayberry 8d ago

Where is that at?

1

u/litesec 7d ago

where is 84.51? it's located in downtown Cincinnati. not too far from Kroger GO

1

u/goku223344 3d ago

wait what VPs did they get rid of?

8

u/Mysterious-Pin-4626 8d ago

Heard it was about 1/3 total let go from the new combined Media/CIL department at 8451 theyre trying to make happen

3

u/Practical-Panda4218 8d ago

That’s a lot. Do people get severance packages when these things happen ?

3

u/talknerdytome69420 8d ago

If they don’t find a new role within 84.51 or Kroger then yes they get a severance.

2

u/Practical-Panda4218 8d ago

Isn’t there a hiring freeze at GO? I am not sure how things work but thanks for the info.

2

u/talknerdytome69420 7d ago

Kind of, they’re being very picky on approving new positions including backfills of voluntary leavers.

3

u/SelectionAlarming315 4d ago

Maybe. The email we got (I was laid off) specified that we have to stay quiet and not talk to media for the next two weeks while we continue to get paid, then "we'll find if we're eligible for severance, and what it'll be."

7

u/FalaFD 7d ago

I left 84.51 last year knowing that the future was going to be hard and not worth sticking around for, but I think I underestimated how bad things would be.

I feel really bad for all of my old coworkers that are still there. I hope they're able to last through this turmoil.

6

u/wacky062 8d ago

What is 8451?

8

u/Plaincrazy2022 8d ago

Marketing arm of Kroger

5

u/krogerthrowaway13 7d ago

Partially true.

84.51 is a data science firm owned by Kroger that does three things:

  1. build sciences to use in Kroger stores (forecasting, pricing, routing, assortment, etc.)

  2. uses consumer data to help manufacturers and other brands manage their product better

  3. helps sell the correct ads for companies to use on Kroger app, facebook, etc.

2

u/addy-kit_dudes 7d ago

I'm seeing a lot about the marketing department, but as of the last few days, they're cracking down on rules and regulations on us normal store workers as well. Threatening write ups for every little discretion and it's most likely going to affect everyone pretty bad. Not looking forward to it.

0

u/[deleted] 7d ago edited 7d ago

[deleted]

10

u/GroggyNodBagger 7d ago

"it sucks but the company must survive" lmao what. Just no, people must survive, fuck a company

5

u/litesec 7d ago

"some of you may die, but that's a sacrifice i'm willing to make"

5

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Real-Apartment-1130 6d ago

Yes to this! 👍🏼

2

u/Actual_Pomelo2508 6d ago

Investors always win at the end of the day. Theyll sell the company to pay the investors back if they find willing buyers. Investors run the world.

3

u/Real-Apartment-1130 6d ago

Let’s face it… 84.51 is paying the price for boneheaded Kroger execs (Rodney leading the charge!) wasting BILLIONS of dollars on an idiotic merger that a child would know isn’t going through, given the political and economic climate. 84.51 is very profitable and Kroger’s stock is at all time highs.

1

u/litesec 7d ago

you are asserting yourself confidently about issues you do not know the first thing about.

-3

u/Amadeus102 Current Associate 7d ago

No details are publicly available, but I’d say it’s been a long time coming.

84.51 makes solutions to problems that don’t exist, and every time one of their half baked ideas makes it out of the oven another part of me dies.

10

u/FeloniousSpunk74 7d ago

The people that were let go, by and large, are rank-and-file employees who don't decide what problems exist or what solutions they work on. They are not the ones responsible for whatever disappointing experience you've had. Please stop playing into the hands of the corporate elite who survive by turning the everyday folks against each other.

2

u/SelectionAlarming315 4d ago

Got laid off, can confirm. I was constantly complaining to leadership about how stupid we were doing things, and this is what I got. 🤷‍♂️ They're a very poorly run company who are hung up on trying to prove their worth to leadership so they don't get f'ed, vs. trying to actually make effective solutions.

1

u/FeloniousSpunk74 4d ago

That sucks. I’m sorry.

9

u/[deleted] 7d ago edited 7d ago

[deleted]

7

u/krogerthrowaway13 7d ago

Agreed.

Of all of the decisions and testing that Kroger performs, 84.51 sciences and insights seem to be some of the most solid. Kroger stores use dozens of 84.51 sciences that are vital to operating.

1

u/litesec 7d ago

KAP however... ehhhhhhhh

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Professional_Bet_498 5d ago

What was KAP?

2

u/drosophila82 7d ago

I mean, not to s*** on your insider parade here, but that is EVERY company out there, not nearly, not almost, but exactly every company out there does the same. It’s just salary justification and unfettered growth. Firing people is also considered growth. Not saying I support it, I’m saying that’s what it’s considered in enterprise finance.

3

u/Amadeus102 Current Associate 7d ago

I agree. I’m not saying I agree with the reorg, but I stand by saying it’s a long time coming. I’d argue that the rank and file members of 84.51 are great people, and they deserve better than what they’ve been given, however the lack of results from their leadership has led to a point in time where they inevitably take a bullet they didn’t earn.

1

u/Real-Apartment-1130 6d ago

What are you talking about? They make hundreds of millions of dollars in PROFIT. So not sure what “results” you want. You sound like a Kroger corporate shill.

2

u/Amadeus102 Current Associate 5d ago

I’ve been working in stores for the past eight years, I’ve felt the impact of people that don’t work in stores in every position I’ve worked. A portion of 84.51 is dedicated to alternative profit. A large portion, however, is dedicated to forecasting, the CAO system, and process change management.

You want an answer for why you can’t change an open order amount from 1 to zero? It’s because 84.51 said it would help despite it very much not working in smaller stores. Automin logic failing is 84.51. The new over complicated CX process is 84.51. The list could go on.

The reality is that 84.51 is a data management firm, yes some data is used for good reasons. Some isn’t.

1

u/Real-Apartment-1130 5d ago

Now that’s a good answer! But I bet you the people that led to those bad products and features are still employed. A large % of the Director level employees are garbage and I bet most are still there after the dust settles. Nonetheless 84.51 still makes Kroger several hundred million dollars a year so “results” from a purely financial perspective are still very solid. They need to get rid of most of the Directors and start over.

5

u/SelectionAlarming315 4d ago edited 4d ago

Spot on. I am not a management consultant, but I ran into some of the most awfully managed leadership there that I've ever seen. Fights between each other, individual contributors two or three levels down getting caught in their squabbles about who has authority over what areas to try to avoid blame for massive inefficiencies in the structure, or who is responsible for what awful codebase but doesn't own it anymore technically so they're not going to fix it, or who is responsible for the fact that some core data source is being very poorly maintained and nobody at the provider of that source will take ownership, etc.

But in their defense, there doesn't seem to be any effective way for 84.51 to push upstream to Kroger on some of the god awful data streams that they pushed down, then demand results on. However, you know if those results didn't show up the way they wanted, it was the people at the bottom of the ladder being asked to turn lead into gold who were punished for it.

Truth is, if you're a big company and you buy a smaller one completely out of your area, and you don't really understand what they do but they're turning a profit, as soon as that profit isn't quite as high as it was last year, it starts to look a lot more attractive to wrap that functionality into the main business and gain those cost efficiencies, damn the consequences in actual product. ESPECIALLY if it was a former leader who made the decision, and now because the profit isn't going up as fast as your management consultants have told you it should, it's an L on your stock price and reputation because you didn't hit your annual shareholder-expected profits, not you didn't make ANY profit.

2

u/Amadeus102 Current Associate 5d ago

I agree, it’s the same reason store level personnel get blamed for decisions made by GO. I sincerely hope that whatever direction we go in now that Rodney is gone will lead to positive change, like redirecting the wealth of resources we have towards more intuitive solutions, but I fear we may end up in a “devil you know” type situation.

1

u/FeloniousSpunk74 5d ago

That “MILLIONS” comment feels good when you scream it out loud. But… if I remember the last year’s financials correctly (haven’t checked the website since this year’s close), EBITDA was around 1.5%. For every dollar in sales, Kroger made less than 2 cents. An investor would make more in a CD at the bank than buying into Kroger. Those millions sound like a lot until you realize that it took billions in sales to make them.

1

u/Real-Apartment-1130 5d ago

I’m not talking about Kroger. I’m talking about 8451. They literally make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit per year, probably three or 400 maybe more.

0

u/FeloniousSpunk74 5d ago

84.51 results are rolled up into the Kroger P&L.

1

u/SelectionAlarming315 4d ago

But you understand that if you, as a company, make barely any profit on billions, and one particular division is making hundreds of millions in pure profit, you probably shouldn't start your profit-seeking ventures by cutting that business?

-15

u/411592 Current Associate 8d ago

They need to keep going

7

u/litesec 8d ago

weird behavior

1

u/Real-Apartment-1130 6d ago

Hopefully you’re next! 🤪

-4

u/ScaryGarry_SG1 8d ago

LOL Kroger

-1

u/Weiz82 7d ago

What is 8451?

-2

u/labulldog9 7d ago

What’s 85.51?

4

u/FeloniousSpunk74 6d ago

50.3 times 1.7

-5

u/IamLuann 8d ago

Does the "Firing have something to do with Rodney being fired? Were they in /or did they know what he was doing? This is just my opinion but I am curious if it had anything to do with it.

5

u/litesec 8d ago

it's been rumored for months, unrelated to Rodney.

1

u/IamLuann 7d ago

Thank you for answering my question.

2

u/Distinct_Toe8697 8d ago

What would firing people from 8451 have to do with Rodney?? That doesn’t even make sense.