Kroger Chains Seek Military Families to Fill Thousands of Job Openings

Open interviews will be held Sept. 15 at Ralphs and Food 4 Less stores for veterans and their family members, as part of an effort to fill an estimated 20,000 permanent jobs within parent company Kroger’s supermarket divisions nationwide.

Ralphs Grocery Co., which operates 209 supermarkets from its headquarters in Los Angeles, is hiring to fill an estimated 1,000 positions, according to spokeswoman Kendra Doyel.

At Los Angeles-based Food 4 Less, interviews will be held at 95 stores in Southern California and 14 in the greater Chicago area.

Veterans and their family members need only to fill out on application online at https://jobs.kroger.com/ralphs/ or https://jobs.kroger.com/food-4- less/ by Sept. 13, and then return to a store on Sept. 15 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. No appointment is necessary.

Ralphs and Food 4 Less, along with the entire Kroger family of stores, collectively hired more than 6,000 veterans in 2014, and has hired more than 29,000 veterans since 2009 as part of its “Honoring Our Heroes” program, according to company officials.

“Ralphs is deeply committed to the nation’s veterans and their families, and we continue to seek out opportunities to honor heroes through career opportunities,” said Donna Giordano, president of Ralphs.

“Ralphs is a place where you can come for a job and stay for a career,” she said, noting that the majority of Ralphs store managers started as part-time clerks.

Bryan Kaltenbach, president of Food 4 Less, said: “We are honored to offer our military veterans, who have heroically served our nation and defended our freedoms, the opportunity to work at Food 4 Less.”

“We know that veterans offer unique skills and experiences that can contribute significantly to our goal of being the finest supermarket in each community in which we operate,” he said. “Our commitment to hire veterans affirms the value we place on our military men and women because no one who has fought for our country overseas should have to fight for a job at home.”

The online application requests an email address, employment history and education information and takes about 30 minutes to complete.

Applicants should input the hashtag #HonoringOurHeroes in the “Search by keyword” field at the top of https://jobs.kroger.com/ralphs/, as well as the Food 4 Less page, when applying online to be eligible for an in-store interview on Sept. 15.

City News Service; Photo: Patch Archive