‘We are definitely living in The Hunger Games’: Kroger shopper shows apple juice, Cheez-It shelves replaced by product photos
A Kroger TikTok has gone viral after a customer, @soldierx1, showed how grocery products had vanished—and were replaced with pictures of products instead in an arguably dystopian move.
"Man, I thought this sh*t was a joke!" the customer exclaimed, zooming in on printed photos of apple juice.
"Even the Cheez-Its!" he says, panning the camera to show the shelves behind these printed photos, which were depressingly empty.
As of Saturday, the video has been viewed 1.6 million times, although the creator didn't immediately respond to the Daily Dot's request for comment via TikTok comment.
Why are grocery store products being replaced with photos?
Plenty of commenters were confused about what they were seeing, with one asking, "What the Truman Show is this?" referring to the Jim Carrey movie where his entire life is staged.
"They said, 'Stay hungry,'" another joked. Fortunately, people in the know shed some light on what exactly was going on.
"Grocery store manager here," one said. "They probably going through a reset or remodel. They have up until product comes and reset crew or the vendor sets it."
@soldierx1 DAMN GROCERY STORES ????
♬ original sound - ẞóldīérX1
While another added, "That is so a remodel. Happened at my local Krogers." A third suggested that these pictures are to show stock employees "when/how to stock products when they come in to unpack them." So, that's the mystery of the grocery store pictures solved.
@cosmicwildp If you want tips on how to hate grocery shopping even more, have them change everything around and then throw in printed photos of food
♬ original sound - Whimsy Paige
In a video posted July 2023, Paige (@cosmicwildp) filmed around her local Kroger when an identical thing seemed to have taken place. Bottles of apple juice and, once again, Cheez-Its were replaced by printed sheets of paper crudely covering the shelves to give the (pretty poor) illusion of a shelved-up store.
“Just when you thought grocery shopping couldn’t get any worse,” Paige says in the video.
While no further explanation was offered about why Krogers were like this, we can assume that the reasoning behind it is the same—and that a reset or remodel is coming soon. Either way, it won't be long until the real Cheez-Its are back at pride of place.
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