It also makes little functionally for employees because the remaining service chicken case is at the very end of the line, and the self serve hot food and the self serve sliced meat cases, are between the service chicken case and the other service deli counters. And now rather than re-expand the service counter back to what it was before, they kept the cut down service counter and just moved self service offerings that were previously out in open space, into the previous service counter space. Two years ago when they added this BBQ and Mexican Hot Food, Kroger screwed up this store's deli by cutting the size of the service deli case to add in these hot food counters back. In light of COVID, the timing for removing the salad bar was just right.Īs part of removing the BBQ and Mexican Food, they replaced the previous service counters with a self serve case for hot roast chickens (removed the larger and nicer looking island-type case where these were previously placed) and a second self serve case for prepacked store packed deli sliced lunchmeat (removed a temporary looking case that was plugged into a support beam where this was previously placed- this is an improvement).
They took the small salad bar they had installed out earlier this year and reset in Murray's Cheese into that space. This BBQ and Mexican Food hot food counter has been removed from the Reno Smiths that had it, sometime in the past week or two. The prices represent a poor value in my view and the quality of the offering is fine, but not outstanding enough to justify the pricing. I have also seen Whole Foods with burrito offerings at a lower price point but can't speak for the quality of those. I have not seen these programs before and wonder if they are popping up elsewhere? I have seen Whole Foods with BBQ offerings, but their program is much better than this. It will be interesting to see how these programs do. The store also has a sushi counter, small soup bar, and small salad bar. Then there is still the regular fried/roasted chicken program as well.
The ribs are I want to say 5.99 for a half rack and 10.99 for full the ribs look similar but maybe a little larger than the ribs they had before that were roasted/prepackaged/warmed up. The BBQ price is $6.99 for a sandwich and one side or $7.99 for a plate with 1 meat and 2 sides, or $12.99 for a plate with 2 meats and 2 sides. They sell side items also including beans, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, and a couple other things.
They offer pulled pork, brisket, pork ribs, and hot links. The BBQ they have to cook on looks about the size of a kitchen stove. One new offer is a hot mexican "burrito or bowls" counter. They cut down the Boar's Head and the prepared salad case by about 40% in order to add in a giant sized hot food counter. Smiths just added some new Deli Hot Foods programs.