I agree with Ben; most of the money in grocery is still in physical stores — improve those.

Have any of you ever worked with traditional grocers? For the most part, you’re dealing with procurement specialists. Definitely NOT customer-oriented thinkers. Take a hairball the size of Kroger, put it on top of said non-customer thinking and you’ve got a recipe for disaster in today’s age. Table stakes: I totally agree with Sarah’s comments.

Add to this the fact that competitors who ARE customer-centric are entering the marketplace daily (some big ones too!) and you just doubled the size of the urgency tent. But what do we hear? Increased table stakes. That, to me, is definitely the sign of a company that just doesn’t get it.

To Ben’s point, will they go away tomorrow? No. Will J.C. Penney go away tomorrow? No. Will Kmart? On and on. The point is relevance. And to me, Kroger is irrelevant and continues to prove that on a consistent basis.

While we can’t really hear the discussion of the Kroger board of directors, I suspect the conversation may go facing another typical rough patch. However, history also credits Kroger as a top notch operator in the supermarket space for the past couple of decades with sound business decisions and a focus on efficiencies and robust operational processes.

I have no doubt that focusing on the core elements of the business will reap rewards for Kroger. But will these benefits be sufficient to maintain leadership in the new grocery battleground? It’s good to heed some advice from Intel’s legendary CEO Andy Grove, “only the paranoid survive.”

There’s a fundamental shift taking place in retail and while grocery was once thought to be immune from dramatic business changes, non-traditional competitors will make sure those changes are applied. Blocking and tackling are an absolute must, but you’ve got to run and connect on some deep routes.

I think she’s a bit correct. You expect leaders to have a vision that is bigger than current trends. Retailers are at different stages of maturity and execution for sure and that matters a lot. But I see her point.

This quote from her article is what spurred my thoughts here: “When executives proudly discussed achievements like knowing their shoppers’ hobbies or whether they use an iPhone or an Android device, all I could think was: Isn’t this simply the standard now that we’re many years into the era of Big Data? What retailer isn’t doing something like this, or at least trying to?”

I disagree with all the bashing from a different perspective: Two or three times a month we buy (mostly) grocery items from Vitacost — a Kroger brand. They almost always execute very well and with discounts are markedly less expensive than Amazon — a place we rarely buy grocery from. We don’t expect two-day delivery yet sometimes it happens. And incidentally, we’ve unintentionally showroomed Whole Foods for many of the packaged-goods staples that now come from Vitacost, due to the substantial price difference and doorstep convenience.

So in short, Kroger has the possibility to remain competitive if they take lessons from Vitacost (among other sources) and stay focused on their game and the needs/desires of their customers.

Kroger has had a consumer centric strategy for years and appears to be continuing that strategy with the new announcement. Kroger is committed to providing the consumer service their consumers want. Doing that sounds more productive than following every new technology or industry approach being tried. Focusing on doing what their consumers want really well is definitely consistent with the strategy they have been pursuing.

Kroger still needs to understand not just the new online marketplace, but also its new level of competition including Lidl, Aldi and others who are creating a new shopping experience, pushing even lower prices at store level (think eggs for $.38 a dozen, milk for $1.57/gallon). They are then combining this with an online presence in-store, as well as follow-up communications, coupons and alerts. Lower prices, online strength, new customer experience, great service and a simple, fast shopping experience. These are the standards for today’s retail mark that Kroger needs to focus on.