Sunshine Sentinel

Grocery store chain Kroger said business in Florida is "great," which is a promising sign for the state's continued economic growth that's showed drastic improvements while rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The grocery chain told the Sunshine Sentinel that it plans to hire between 200-300 employees before 2021 ends, which is on top of the 400 associates it has brought on board. 

Kroger's hiring spree is part of a trend that is happening in many states following cutbacks during the first year of COVID-19, including in Florida where the Department of Economic Opportunity recently reported that the state's unemployment rate continues to hold at 5% as of June, which is below the national 5.4% average. 

"Like many businesses in Florida right now, we are working hard to attract candidates for the positions available, but we are finding the right associates who are delivering the high level of service we expect," Brandon McBurney, general manager of Kroger's Groveland Customer Fulfillment Center, told the Sunshine Sentinel.

McBurney said even though Kroger is new to Florida, the company has seen a "tremendous amount of demand."

"We're seeing high levels of engagement from customers in Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville," McBurney said. "They are sharing positive feedback about Kroger delivery service with us in surveys as well as sharing their experience on social media."

McBurney noted that the state also provides new opportunities for the company.

"We have a hub and spoke model for commerce, which means that our fulfillment center in Groveland serves as the hub where all the product is and customer orders are processed, and Tampa and Jacksonville as spokes, where orders arrive on 53-foot tractor trailer trucks and are then off loaded directly onto Kroger temperature-controlled vans to be delivered directly to customers," McBurney said. 

The Sunshine Sentinel previously reported that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) took a number of steps to try and get the state's economy on the road to a strong recovery, including opting out of federal unemployment benefits and reinstating the work-search requirement. Because of that, Florida has seen more jobs in recent months. 

Central Florida is currently feeling the positive effects of Florida's strong recovery as businesses look to hire plenty of help, Bay News 9 reported.