Kroger's Current Longest-Serving Associate Announces Retirement

WESTERVILLE, Ohio, Feb. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- After 63 years with Kroger KR, the company's current longest serving associate, Larry Arnold, announced he will be retiring at the end of the month. The 79-year-old from Falls Township in Muskingum County, Ohio, currently works as a dairy clerk at the Pickerington Marketplace. He started with the company in 1953, when a week before his 16^th birthday he accepted a job as a clerk at the former Market Street store in Zanesville.

Arnold decided in December to pass along his title of longest-serving associate. "It's just a feeling everybody gets," he said. "They always said you know when you're done, and I knew when I was done."

"Kroger is grateful to Larry for his decades of service to the company and its customers," said Kroger Columbus Division President Joe Grieshaber. "All of us with Kroger congratulate him and his family on a tremendous career, and wish him all the best in retirement."

Since the announcement in December, Arnold has been enjoying some time away from work, but on a visit to the store earlier this month, he confessed leaving won't be easy, "I will miss the people — you'll always miss the people — and I'll miss the customers, we have nice customers up here."

Every day, the Kroger Family of Companies makes a difference in the lives of eight and a half million customers and 443,000 associates who shop or serve in 2,796 retail food stores under a variety of local banner names in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Kroger and its subsidiaries operate an expanding ClickList offering – a personalized, order online, pick up at the store service – in addition to 2,253 pharmacies, 787 convenience stores, 324 fine jewelry stores, 1,439 supermarket fuel centers and 38 food production plants in the United States. Kroger is recognized as one of America's most generous companies for its support of more than 100 Feeding America food bank partners, breast cancer research and awareness, the military and their families, and more than 145,000 community organizations including schools. A leader in supplier diversity, Kroger is a proud member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable.

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SOURCE The Kroger Co.