[silisili]

Just looked at their tech careers page.

Seems they want to pay folks < 100K onsite in LA? And only marginally more in Seattle?

Combine that with the fact the vast majority of jobs are hybrid in what appears to be middle of nowhere Ohio(Blue Ash, correct me if I'm wrong I'm looking at a map), I can take a few guesses as to why.

[Uvix]

Blue Ash is a suburb of Cincinnati (where Kroger is headquartered), so not quite the middle of nowhere but also not exactly a tech hotspot.

[silisili]

Thanks. I'm not super well versed in Cinci and didn't mean to insult them as a city, but it seems like Blue Ash is 15 miles from the city center and 30 miles to the airport. Seemed kinda far out accounting for traffic and such. Or is it one of those cities where more is going on in the suburbs than the city proper(lived in one of those myself)?

[vgeek]

Blue Ash is a more educated/affluent suburb with significant P&G and Kroger facilities. Probably preferable to a 1hr each way (typical for many suburbs to downtown) commute and paying for parking. Downtown Cincinnati is kind of boring-- there have been a few new places open, but there are better choices for food and entertainment in various other neighborhoods.

I had an interview at Kroger HQ out of college and it was probably the most depressing office building I had ever been in. That combined with the type of work encountered at legacy industry bigco and it has to be hard to recruit anyone decent. (This coming from someone who is wildly inept, too :D)

Their analytics company 84.51/dunnhumby was always the flashier option that could recruit at a national level.

[buggeryorkshire]

Dunnhumby is owned by Tesco in the UK afaict. Kroger is just a customer.

[vgeek]

Yep, they sold DunnhumbyUSA to Kroger and rebranded to 84.51. They used to have a super visible building right by Fort Washington Way (downtown interstate) and moved closer to Kroger HQ maybe 8-10 years ago after the sale. They still did other shopper card analytics type work, but they are pretty much only Kroger brands (and associated suppliers-- think typical CPG companies) at this point.

[HanClinto]

It's really not far out of the way -- it's right on 275 (the circle freeway around Cincinnati), and is very much a tech hotspot. Blue Ash is filled with tall office buildings and giant parking lots that house various tech companies -- everyone from Sogeti to Johnson & Johnson to innumerable other players are located in Blue Ash. It's been this way all the way back to the 90's -- always felt like the hotspot for tech jobs. Downtown is a relic for established blue chip companies (like P&G) -- if you're an up-and-coming tech company in Cincinnati, chances are you're in Blue Ash.

Proximity to the airport isn't really a big deal -- the airport isn't even in Ohio and is far away from literally everything. City center isn't a big deal -- that's more important for night life, and it's a pain to get in and out of. Believe it or not, Blue Ash has always felt way more accessible to me than downtown.

The most "happening" shopping center in Cincinnati right now is Kenwood, which is right next to Blue Ash -- overall located near far better retail biomes than downtown. Not everything in Cincinnati is going on in the suburbs (downtown and Newport have seen a big resurgence in years of late), but the north suburbs (like Sharonville, Blue Ash, Fairfield, Kenwood) are still some of the more "up" places in the city.