Mom was a Kroger shopper, now she runs half the stores

After more than five years overseeing Kroger’s operations in Greater Cincinnati and Dayton, Sukanya Madlinger, 52, earlier this fall was promoted to become a senior vice president of retail divisions that will place her in charge of eight store divisions.

Born in Mumbai, India, her parents brought her to the U.S. at age 2 and she grew up in Springboro. After nearly three decades with Kroger, Madlinger has helped implement major changes revolutionizing the supermarket chain where her mother used to shop.

Previously Kroger’s vice president for drug, general merchandise and pharmacy merchandising, she helped influence the look and feel of the cosmetics sections in Kroger’s Marketplace stores as they were first built in Ohio. More recently, she has overseen the roll out of Marketplaces in Greater Cincinnati as well as the division’s testing of “click and collect” – the grocer’s order online/pick up at the store experiment that has expanded testing in recent months.

How did you wind up at Kroger?

I was a management trainee out of Wright State University. I aspired to be a CPA and move to New York. I thought this will look really good on my resume if I did it for two or three years.

I fell in love with Kroger – every day flew by and it never felt like work. Customers start to know you by name – you see them two, three sometimes seven days a week. It felt like family to me.

I learned a lot, tasks in every department: how to butterfly pork chops in meat; how to fry donuts in the bakery; how to receive groceries in shipping; and how to check out.

I had to take a quiz after all of it. I even had to know the different types of lettuce in produce.

You’ve been running the Cincinnati/Dayton division for half a decade – what’s the hardest part?

Growing the company and staffing for that growth. Keeping in touch with the customer and the associate.

How do you stay in touch?

I visit stores two to three times a week, each store visit takes two hours. I talk to the associates and leaders. There are 20,000 associates in this division, but most of them know me because I have a lot of interaction with associates – both one-on-one and in small huddles. Ninety percent of the visits are unannounced. I try to stay close to the customers and the people, asking how they did yesterday. I read customer feedback.

What do you look for in an associate?

They need to be friendly. We can teach skills but we can’t make someone friendly.

What changes has Kroger launched thanks to customer feedback?

We’re constantly remodeling and building new stores. We’ve expanded health and wellness products. We’ve increased offering ready-to-eat food – we used to just sell prepared chicken, now it’s everything: sushi, made-to-order pizza, sandwiches, burritos, bowls, wraps. Customers love that we’re going digital, not having to park, and take the kids. Convenience is driving everything we do.

Who is someone that’s influenced your Kroger career?

Don Becker, who was director of operation in the division, mentored me until he passed away (Becker, 62, then an executive vice president, died in 2011). He made any one he mentored feel special. I didn’t realize how many hundreds he mentored…. I never realized how many lives he touched until later.

How did that influence you?

I just spent an hour (mentoring) with a home goods associate. I used to meet with him two or three times a year. Also, he (Becker) always made me effectively communicate. I send personalized notes to 20-30 people a week. Little things like that make people feel valued.

You’re in the food business, I have to ask: What’s in your fridge?

Yogurt, grapes, strawberries, lunch meat and condiments.