Smith’s food and drug company provides everything which is defined in the word supermarket itself; all requirements of a daily household and medicinal drugs required in an emergency without a medical prescription. In 1998, Smith’s parent company was taken over by Kroger Co. With the parent company becoming Kroger’s; Smith’s becomes one of the subsidiaries of Kroger Company.
What is available at Smith’s?
Smiths being a supermarket has a variety of products available under their roof.
Products such as eateries, condiments, groceries, hygiene products, baby products, clothing, accessories for fashion, home decor, multi use tools, personal care, electronic accessories such as batteries, cleaner, charger and so on.
With these, Smiths also provides drugs for fever, cold, allergies, eye irritation, local pain relief medication, pain killers, stomach relief drugs and many more which can be bought off the shelves without any prescription.
Does Smith Make Keys?
Smith being a supermarket doesn’t have the accessibility of making keys in store. However, at Smith’s one can buy locks and keys available at shelves. Even though Smith doesn’t make keys, Kroger Company named stores make keys. Many of the Smiths supermarkets are named as Kroger’s for the sake of popularity and fame.
Kroger’s key making
Kroger’s being a supermarket also has become a life saver as of 2022. By the beginning of 2022 Kroger’s have included “key making” as one of their in store services. One can visit any nearby grocery or supermarket owned by Kroger and get their key made. Kroger’s provides duplication of keys by using key making machines. One has to provide a set of keys to be duplicated at the store.
They use machines provided by the company Key Kiosks for duplication of the keys provided by the customers. The duplication of keys is done for specific locks such as office drawers, home keys and door keys. Some automatic keys which don’t require high computerization techniques can be duplicated.
It is however not available at all stores of Kroger’s or Smiths at the present and hence they suggest to give the store closest to the customer a call before bringing in the key for duplication.
How much does the key duplication cost?
Depending on which key must be duplicated the cost will vary. The difficulty and precision of the key is what makes the cost vary.
A simple 2 lock system can cost a minimum of 3$ and can go up to 5$ for duplication but a 4 system lock which is intriguing work can cost up to 20$ in cost. The minimum price of any key duplication is 3$ and goes up to a maximum of 30$ in cost for making just one copy of the key.
How long does it take to duplicate a key?
The duplication as well doesn’t take long, the key is duplicated within 5 minutes of producing the key at the store for a copy. The time frame is 5 minutes regardless of what type of key, but complex keys can take up to 15 minutes as it requires precision in making the ridges of the key to perfection.
Some keys might take up longer and the employee duplicating your key would tell in advance the duration making it easier for the customer to adjust accordingly.
Can you make copy of any key?
The keys made at Kroger’s which own Smith supermarket are usually a copy of the original or a copy of the lock which is bought from their store. For home keys, the store will ask for authentication of the owner or the rental owner at the present prior to making the duplicate. For the ones which are bought at the store, can be duplicated immediately after purchase. But in doing so the copy of the original cannot be returned or the lock itself cannot be returned.
Keys which are automated such as the keypad locks, or automatic car keys will not be duplicated at the store. One will have to visit the company of the lock for a copy of the key. Kroger’s do not entertain keys which have a do not copy stamp or policy. This means that those keys are meant to be solely sold by the company and cannot have any duplicates.
Return policy of Kroger’s keys
Kroger’s do not have a return policy of keys duplicated at their stores.
However they do take back keys which fail to be precise and cannot be used to open the lock they were made for. In such cases the store will make another key using the original and discard the failed copy with utmost care in order to prevent it from falling in the wrong hands.
Conclusion
Smith’s food and drug company solely does not make keys however its parent company has introduced key making into their stores as of recently. The keys can be duplicated at Kroger’s or any store linked to their parent company. But as the service has been recently introduced not all stores have this facility available.
Kroger’s advice one to verify if the store they wish to visit has the service prior to visit. This puts Kroger’s at disadvantage as many other stores such as Walmart, Home depot provide key making service at all of their stores. To prevent loss of valuable customers, Kroger’s must up their game by making the service available at all their stores. Availability of making keys at supermarkets or hypermarkets has made it easier to mend errands.
Are Smith’s and Kroger’s the same ?
Yes and no. Kroger’s is the parent company of Smith’s but smiths is a branch out of the company.
Can I duplicate my safe key at Kroger?
No, Kroger’s or Smith’s do not duplicate automated keys at their store.
