Publix doesn't seem to understand itself. What was once a classic, serviced-focused shopping experience is now a grab-and-go with self-checkouts and a fairly strong air of indifference. The associates are still generally pleasant, although not well-trained or well directed. Management is confused and inarticulate, for the most part. At the Inverness location, social politics and favorites tend to outshine actual performance. Micromanagement rears its ugly head from the top down. Visits from middle executives and upper management provide two-fold disappointment in that these "leaders" are far more focused on finding problems to criticize rather than reasonable praise for jobs well done-- and, in four years there, I never witnessed a regional manager or executive actually serve a customer or lift a practical hand to help out in any department.
The old days of Mr. George's service and leadership philosophies are long since past. The growing pains that this company has been going through over the past several years are mostly being acutely suffered by the customers and the hourly employees who are increasingly being treated like expendables or numbers... and with contempt, indifference, and slogans which the company and its upper management quietly refuse to live up to.
