Between serving more customers virtually, making adjustments to keep up with battered supply chains and maintaining efforts to stay in touch with both new and existing shoppers, The Kroger Co. is determined to come out of the coronavirus crisis “in better shape than we went in,” CEO Rodney McMullen said in an interview this week.

Speaking in a webcast conference with Evercore ISI, McMullen said the chain is looking at its swelling volumes due to the national shutdown as an opportunity to win loyalty when the crisis subsides.

“We’re working hard to try and make sure people fall in love with eating as a family again,” he said.

To this end, McMullen said Kroger was staying “disciplined” on promotions and on its personalized offers to shoppers, adjusting only to de-emphasize stocking up while making efforts to include new shoppers in those mailings sooner than it typically would have before the crisis, acknowledging those sales could be fleeting.

“We’re still doing mailings directly to customers on a monthly basis based on their shopping behavior. … Several of our competitors have stopped doing that,” McMullen noted.

“In the past, we would’ve been aggressive users of '10 for $10' or 'buy five, save five,' those types of things. We have modified those offers, but we continue to communicate to customers individually based on their household behaviors.”

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