Hy-Vee-What's up?

[cb1030]

I grew up only shopping at Hy-Vee but have become a full convert to Fareway. I don't care that they have less selection on some specialty items because free 2 day shipping has be covered for anything that isn't going to spoil. Also, Fareway will usually stock any item you ask for. One time I wrote an email to my local store about carrying kimchi and it was already there the next week that I shopped.

Also, I could've told you the whole market grill and clothing areas were going to fail. Who thinks to themselves, gee, what this place really needs is a half-assed sports bar that I have to battle grocery store parking to get into? Also, is it just me, or does every new Hy-Vee have terrible parking? It's like they took out parking spaces to accommodate upscale landscaping. If you go to one of the Ankeny stores you're going to do some walking because they're always jam packed.

 

[Al_4_State]

They're opening a bunch of those Market Fresh stores up this way (Cresco and Waukon off the top of my head) to be serviced by the full-sized store going in in Decorah. I don't think that's going to have a Market Grille, either.

I think the small town versions are just going to be grocery stores as well.

 

[dosry5]

It's like they took out parking spaces to accommodate upscale landscaping. If you go to one of the Ankeny stores you're going to do some walking because they're always jam packed.

I don’t know if other HyVee’s have the parking for electric cars like the Urbandale one does, but in the history of time has anyone ever seen someone parked there and using it as intended?

 

[Gunnerclone]

Giant Eagle's are actually kinda nice! Kroger's suck and I hate their existence.

Has Acme Fresh Market made it's way from North East Ohio yet? Those things.... 2nd favorite grocery store in the country. Publix by far is the best.

Giant Eagle is like Dahls level for me. Their Market Districts rival a regular HyVee (but SO expensive). no acmes that I’m aware of. Still waiting for Sheetz to get here because the “convenience stores” here a ******* joke as well.

 

[CascadeClone]

Our local HyVee is pretty good. It's an older, smaller one in CR. I agree the Market Grille thing was a dumb idea-- devoting a lot of expensive space so older folks can sit around and drink coffee and read the paper for free was somehow not a money-maker. Ours has pushed that back quite a bit.

Like most retail places (restaurant chains especially) - if the manager is good, the whole place is great. If manager is bad, place is a disaster.

 

[jcisuclones]

I don’t know if other HyVee has the parking for electric cars like the Urbandale one does, but in the history of time has anyone ever seen someone parked there and using it as intended?

I saw someone with a big lifted diesel truck double parked crossed two of those spots once, but other than that, no.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

Giant Eagle is like Dahls level for me. Their Market Districts rival a regular HyVee (but SO expensive). no acmes that I’m aware of. Still waiting for Sheetz to get here because the “convenience stores” here a ******* joke as well.

I think the Market Districts are better than a Hy-Vee. Though I'll admit, it's so damn expensive.

I mean look at the one that I grew up near....

What about Marc's? They down in Columbus? They remind me of Fareway's a lot. That's where we'd shop for Boy Scouts or big groups. Big value for what you got.

 

[dmclone]

I don’t know if other HyVee’s have the parking for electric cars like the Urbandale one does, but in the history of time has anyone ever seen someone parked there and using it as intended?

I always park near those when I go to get beer and I've seen a few Nissan Leafs plugged in. I've never seen a Tesla parked there and I don't even know if those work with Tesla's?

Just looked it up, some Hy-Vee's have Tesla Supercharges but the ones at Urbandale are not.

 

[CYdTracked]

I worked for Hy-Vee for about 5 years, mostly in the store but did 2 summer internships with their corporate IT dept and did some part time work at corporate IT between graduating college and my first job. That was about 18 years ago so a lot has probably changed. Just from the surface it seems like they ventured back down some areas that they tried to 20 years ago that didn't work out so well. Does anyone remember the Heartland Pantry gas stations back in the 90's? I believe those were owned by Hy-Vee and they sold them off because they were losing money. I worked at the West Lakes store in WDM the day it opened which at the time was their largest store and it's just down the road from their corporate offices. It was the store they panned to use as a test market for new ideas and the 1 thing they put in that store was a "Reichardt's Express" which was nothing more than overpriced clothing. Their idea was since that area was booming in growth with lots of corporate buildings and hotels going up that they could cater to the business people who needed something quick without having to go to a clothing store to get it. Well they closed that department up within a year of the store being open because its was not making money. I kind of wonder if the whole bath and beauty sections they have put in will see a similar fate but hard to tell because I have no clue what kind of revenue those departments are making.

May be a combination of growing too fast, taking too many risks with some of these new ventures they have gotten into, and just lack of managing it all efficiently. I agree with those posts here about the customer service suffering. As someone that used to work in a store and knows how the front end runs its frustrating when you bring a full cart of groceries to a checkout and there is no one there bagging them or a shift manager just standing there and sees it and not stepping in themselves to help out or calling more help up front. When they get a big rush at checkout the side departments are asked to send someone up front to help bag groceries since inventory can always be re-stocked when things slow down. The frozen, dairy, meat and produce almost always could stop what they were doing and send 1 person up front to help out while the kitchen areas might not. There have been times now that I feel bad for the checker when their counter is piling up and they'll be forced to bag it all before they can help the next customer so if the mood strikes me I'll just bag my own groceries which is something some of this kids today still haven't been taught the proper way to do and that again is a training and management issue.

I hope as a whole this isn't a sign the company is in trouble because they have always been a very innovative and growing company. Some stores probably operate better than others because of the people there who are dedicated and have the experience to run things the right ways but I can believe if there are stores that need some help because they haven't been managed well. I used to say if you shop there regularly and you know who the store director is because that person probably is out on the floor a lot helping out in ways like bagging groceries, opening up a check out during a busy time, re-stocking shelves, or even behind the food counter helping get through a line of people waiting for food at Chinese or kitchen. Those stores seems to run well because their top manager cares about service and isn't above getting involved in the work when things get busy. By doing that they also know exactly where they need to improve on things in the store because they are seeing it first hand themselves if something isn't right.

 

[Farnsworth]

Did you provide a helpful smile in every aisle?

I was a helpful smile in the aisle in a Hy-Vee commercial circa 2001. True story.

They were shooting our store at like 6 am on a Saturday when people weren't there and everyone was too big of pussies to be on TV so I stepped up.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

But do not touch the Hy Chi - that is a staple!!!

Hy-Chi is wildly inconsistent form location to location though but a lot of that has to do with the Market Grills killing their customer base.

 

[Farnsworth]

I always park near those when I go to get beer and I've seen a few Nissan Leafs plugged in. I've never seen a Tesla parked there and I don't even know if those work with Tesla's?

Just looked it up, some Hy-Vee's have Tesla Supercharges but the ones at Urbandale are not.

I'll park my car in the electric sometimes, but I mainly take one of the aisles online spots. Nobody is ever in them and it's not like they are coming to your car. I cross the line at pregnant parking, that's rude

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Giant Eagle's are actually kinda nice! Kroger's suck and I hate their existence.

Has Acme Fresh Market made it's way from North East Ohio yet? Those things.... 2nd favorite grocery store in the country. Publix by far is the best.

Publix are crazy expensive. When I lived on the east coast I really liked Food Lion. Compared to Kroger and Farm Fresh, they had a little more of a no frills approach.

 

[cdface]

The Iowa City stores still have good service and are doing fine, but I'm sure that stores in less populous locales have more of an issue with finding good help. No one here is happy about the loss of the 24 hours either. There are a lot of second shifters that are SOL now if they need to grab something on the way home for the morning.

I think the market grill here does okay now that they got rid of the full-time wait staff that they originally had. We love taking our kids there, especially for breakfast/brunch, and they're always super great about accommodating special requests.

The worst thing they've done is add that f****** Claire's aisle. We've had to stop going in that entrance, lol.

 

[Farnsworth]

This may be totally off but I'm wondering if they are trying to actually get less people doing their Aisles program. When you use their Aisles program you are a lot less likely to buy things from those high profit areas.

I agree. You need them in the store to buy stupid **** they don't need. It throws away all the science that goes into grocery stores, product placement, loss leaders, etc.

I'm sure they don't like to do it as it just cost time and money, but I think they just had to keep up with WalMart who were offering these services. I don't think they needed to though.

 

[Big_Sill]

Just in the last few weeks:

• Multiple fulfillment centers are closing (Omaha, KC, DSM)
• Five Hy-Vee Market Grille restaurants in central Iowa will transition into Wahlburgers restaurants by early summer, resulting in some layoffs.
  
• Hy-Vee announced that some of its store directors will become district store directors, who will oversee several stores and mentor store managers.
  
• No longer open 24hrs
• 30 in-store dietitians will transfer to the corporate health and wellness team to support companywide programs.
• Purchasing 5 QT's in the Des Moines area.Fast & Fresh Express

https://www.kcci.com/article/hy-vee-layoffs-total-368-at-urbandale-fulfillment-center/31351944

So are they in trouble, trying to stay ahead of the curve, shoring up things before being acquired, etc.

Retail is changing, they are trying to stay ahead of the curve and will try things that fail. Retailers who aren't trying to innovate are the ones who will ultimately lose.

Side note: People seem to enjoy hating on Hy-Vee, I'm not sure why. They are an incredible community partner, offer great benefits, employ groups of need. If you don't like to shop at Hy-Vee fine, but I don't get the hate or people who seem to hope for their demise. Our community loses if the Hy-Vee were replaced by another chain.

 

[dosry5]

I was a helpful smile in the aisle in a Hy-Vee commercial circa 2001. True story.

They were shooting our store at like 6 am on a Saturday when people weren't there and everyone was too big of pussies to be on TV so I stepped up.

Not all heroes wear capes. For some, it’s an apron.

 

[isufbcurt]

Hy-Chi is wildly inconsistent form location to location though but a lot of that has to do with the Market Grills killing their customer base.

They have always been wildly inconsistent. When I used to split time working between Ames and West Des Moines about 10 years ago the General Chicken at East Ames was nothing like the General Chicken at the Windsor Heights store.

 

[JM4CY]

HyVee has definitely made some poor business decisions but come out to CBus sometime and hit up a Kroger or a Giant Eagle and you will be fapping to a picture of the Waukee HyVee on a Sunday afternoon because you miss it so much.

I think you’re taking the helpful smile thing a little too far

 

[dmclone]

I worked in Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Indianola (old store), WDM, and East Euclid Hy-Vee. My experience has been that **** runs downhill. If you have a profitable store, you probably have a good store director, and you probably have good customer service throughout. What may surprise a lot of people is that the biggest stores are usually not the most profitable and a lot of times they have the most inexperienced store directors that are not on commission like the profitable stores. This also changes over time. Back in the 1990's Urbandale and WDM 35th st. were the busiest in the DSM metro. 10 years earlier east euclid was one of the busiest stores in the company. On the other hand, you had stores like Indianola that would do 1/2 the business of a store like East Euclid but would be a lot more profitable. My guess is that WDM 35th st. is way down the list when it comes to volume. When I left in the early 2000's, I believe highest volume store was in Overland Park, Kansas.

BTW-This post makes me not miss working retail. My last year at Hy-Vee I was working 60 hours a week(salary) and had 2 holidays off because they were closed.