Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?

ScottyP

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I will believe it when the local store gets a meat counter again instead of prepackaged crap
The meat counter at my local store keeps shifting more and more to the pre-packaged stuff. Most of the meat counter stuff is various brat flavors or marinated chicken breasts. Anytime I request something at the meat counter, there is about a 70% chance they direct me to the pre-packaged section.
 
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Frog

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I read that Hy-Vee opened a Health Exemplar Care Clinic in Davenport. I didn’t know this was a thing. I will continue with Genesis.

I currently get my medications from Hy-Vee, but I've noticed that filling prescriptions is taking longer and longer. I just went to pick up my prescription, which I was notified had been completed via text. However, when I arrived, they informed me that they hadn't received it from the fulfillment location yet, as they are no longer filling most prescriptions in-store so that answers that.
At least Wine and Spirits had Ames Lager so not a total waste of time.
 
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cyfan92

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I see Hy-Vee's strategies as proof that MBA's, or at least their bosses, are mostly idiots.

I love that the world is waking up to the farse that is getting an MBA. All you are paying for is potential networking that you could do yourself if you have the courage to actually talk to people...
 

Gonzo

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I love that the world is waking up to the farse that is getting an MBA. All you are paying for is potential networking that you could do yourself if you have the courage to actually talk to people...
They used to hold a lot of value but eventually the market got flooded with MBA programs of widely varying quality. It became a whole lot easier to get into MBA programs for people who would've never gotten in years/decades earlier, schools were willing to take all comers because it just meant more tuition revenue. Then you had offshoots like executive MBA programs, 3+2 MBA programs, part-time online MBA programs, etc., and everything has gotten completely watered down.

If I were a college student today who had a clear vision of what I wanted to do in business I'd get my BA/BS in business management and then skip the MBA in favor of a concentrated MS in something like finance, accounting, business analytics, engineering management, etc.
 
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kcdc4isu

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The meat counter at my local store keeps shifting more and more to the pre-packaged stuff. Most of the meat counter stuff is various brat flavors or marinated chicken breasts. Anytime I request something at the meat counter, there is about a 70% chance they direct me to the pre-packaged section.
That could be because if people are not asking for what is in the service case the wrapped meat has a longer life. Meat in a service case only has a short time to be really fresh. It must be sold quickly.
 
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cyfan92

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They used to hold a lot of value but eventually the market got flooded with MBA programs of widely varying quality. It became a whole lot easier to get into MBA programs for people who would've never gotten in years/decades earlier, schools were willing to take all comers because it just meant more tuition revenue. Then you had offshoots like executive MBA programs, 3+2 MBA programs, part-time online MBA programs, etc., and everything has gotten completely watered down.

If I were a college student today who had a clear vision of what I wanted to do in business I'd get my BA/BS in business management and then skip the MBA in favor of a concentrated MS in something like finance, accounting, business analytics, engineering management, etc.
That's a option for sure, especially given the demand off today's job postings.

I'd tell an 18 year old to either learn a skill and skip college or get a 4 year degree in a scalable profession where income prospects are super high (stem).

Getting a degree to make $50-$75k, given today's cost of living is a tough sell, especially given that most need loans to pay for school.
 

carvers4math

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The meat counter at my local store keeps shifting more and more to the pre-packaged stuff. Most of the meat counter stuff is various brat flavors or marinated chicken breasts. Anytime I request something at the meat counter, there is about a 70% chance they direct me to the pre-packaged section.
At least you have something. They fired butchers that had been working there over 40 years
 

MJ29

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I read that Hy-Vee opened a Health Exemplar Care Clinic in Davenport. I didn’t know this was a thing. I will continue with Genesis.

I currently get my medications from Hy-Vee, but I've noticed that filling prescriptions is taking longer and longer. I just went to pick up my prescription, which I was notified had been completed via text. However, when I arrived, they informed me that they hadn't received it from the fulfillment location yet, as they are no longer filling most prescriptions in-store so that answers that.
At least Wine and Spirits had Ames Lager so not a total waste of time.

They have one in WDM too.
 
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Gonzo

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That's a option for sure, especially given the demand off today's job postings.

I'd tell an 18 year old to either learn a skill and skip college or get a 4 year degree in a scalable profession where income prospects are super high (stem).

Getting a degree to make $50-$75k, given today's cost of living is a tough sell, especially given that most need loans to pay for school.
Income prospects in business are solid, especially areas like finance and the tech space, which is why getting an MS in engineering management can be a really smart move for those who have an engineering/tech background. All those companies/organizations need C-suite leaders who can bridge business/management with a solid understanding of technology.

Taking your first two years at a quality CC to knock out all the core stuff and then transferring to a four-year for the final two is also a really smart move in terms of savings, which I know is no secret.
 
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ianoconnor

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And it sounds like ticket prices are going to go way way down, making it an option for a lot of people who before maybe couldn't swing it with the higher ticket prices.
For sure. Back at the earlier iterations of the Iowa IndyCar race, kids 12 & under were free (which is relatively common in motorsport). You could take the entire family for $100.

Even if you don't go to the actual races, I highly suggest people go out to the Friday 'Family Fun Night' which it sounds like will remain post Hy-Vee. It's free and a great experience for the kids.
 
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CYdTracked

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The meat counter at my local store keeps shifting more and more to the pre-packaged stuff. Most of the meat counter stuff is various brat flavors or marinated chicken breasts. Anytime I request something at the meat counter, there is about a 70% chance they direct me to the pre-packaged section.
Hy-Vee has been doing this a lot longer than just recently although I am sure they probably have done even more than I am aware of. You'll be surprised just how much in the actual meat counter is not prepared in-store anymore too. I worked part time in the Hy-Vee store just down the street from their corporate offices when it opened in 1998 and into the early 2000's while in college. They used to cut everything in store that was in the self service coolers then sometime around 2000 I think most of it all came pre-packed. The quality of cuts IMO really suffered because at least when you are cutting things in store you can quality control what gets put out. The pre-packed stuff you are stuck with whatever they send you and some of the stuff we'd get in looked like someone just threw whatever mangled piece of meat they cut into the package. We used to make things like the marinated chicken, chicken grillers, and kabobs in store too and eventually all that came premade too. I think the "fresh" brats in the case now also are not made in store, they come frozen as I have bought some in a pinch that looked like they just came out of the freezer. They used to make their own grind in store, add seasoning and then run it through casing from the grinder as I remember having to make links from a long rope of it they just made.

I get all my beef from my brother in-law who feeds out a group of steers every year for friends and family so rarely do I buy any kind of beef from a store now. Mostly pork chicken and seafood that I buy and I'm a lot less picky with that than I would if I had to buy beef at the prices they are at now. Would love to have more freezer space and buy pork from someone local but I can barely fit the 1/4 of beef I get every year in our standup freezer as still usually have some from the previous year left too. Prior to buying a 1/4 I would usually find a sale on a whole ribeye or strip loin and just cut it up myself and freeze. I don't pay attention to the beef ads the stores run but Fareway usually has a deal on a whole loin once in awhile and they will usually even package it for you too. I'll do that with boneless pork loins too if Hy-Vee or someone is running a really good sale price, cut a roast off the fatter end then make various size chops out of the rest.
 
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ackatch

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Hy-Vee has been doing this a lot longer than just recently although I am sure they probably have done even more than I am aware of. You'll be surprised just how much in the actual meat counter is not prepared in-store anymore too. I worked part time in the Hy-Vee store just down the street from their corporate offices when it opened in 1998 and into the early 2000's while in college. They used to cut everything in store that was in the self service coolers then sometime around 2000 I think most of it all came pre-packed. The quality of cuts IMO really suffered because at least when you are cutting things in store you can quality control what gets put out. The pre-packed stuff you are stuck with whatever they send you and some of the stuff we'd get in looked like someone just threw whatever mangled piece of meat they cut into the package. We used to make things like the marinated chicken, chicken grillers, and kabobs in store too and eventually all that came premade too. I think the "fresh" brats in the case now also are not made in store, they come frozen as I have bought some in a pinch that looked like they just came out of the freezer. They used to make their own grind in store, add seasoning and then run it through casing from the grinder as I remember having to make links from a long rope of it they just made.

I get all my beef from my brother in-law who feeds out a group of steers every year for friends and family so rarely do I buy any kind of beef from a store now. Mostly pork chicken and seafood that I buy and I'm a lot less picky with that than I would if I had to buy beef at the prices they are at now. Would love to have more freezer space and buy pork from someone local but I can barely fit the 1/4 of beef I get every year in our standup freezer as still usually have some from the previous year left too. Prior to buying a 1/4 I would usually find a sale on a whole ribeye or strip loin and just cut it up myself and freeze. I don't pay attention to the beef ads the stores run but Fareway usually has a deal on a whole loin once in awhile and they will usually even package it for you too. I'll do that with boneless pork loins too if Hy-Vee or someone is running a really good sale price, cut a roast off the fatter end then make various size chops out of the rest.
Had the wife pickup a whole pork loin from Costco for $20 yesterday, cut it up into Pork Chops - ended up getting 20 or so of them and couldn't have been happier with how they looked. Even my FiL said "thats some good looking pork"
 

VeloClone

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Hy-Vee has been doing this a lot longer than just recently although I am sure they probably have done even more than I am aware of. You'll be surprised just how much in the actual meat counter is not prepared in-store anymore too. I worked part time in the Hy-Vee store just down the street from their corporate offices when it opened in 1998 and into the early 2000's while in college. They used to cut everything in store that was in the self service coolers then sometime around 2000 I think most of it all came pre-packed. The quality of cuts IMO really suffered because at least when you are cutting things in store you can quality control what gets put out. The pre-packed stuff you are stuck with whatever they send you and some of the stuff we'd get in looked like someone just threw whatever mangled piece of meat they cut into the package. We used to make things like the marinated chicken, chicken grillers, and kabobs in store too and eventually all that came premade too. I think the "fresh" brats in the case now also are not made in store, they come frozen as I have bought some in a pinch that looked like they just came out of the freezer. They used to make their own grind in store, add seasoning and then run it through casing from the grinder as I remember having to make links from a long rope of it they just made.

I get all my beef from my brother in-law who feeds out a group of steers every year for friends and family so rarely do I buy any kind of beef from a store now. Mostly pork chicken and seafood that I buy and I'm a lot less picky with that than I would if I had to buy beef at the prices they are at now. Would love to have more freezer space and buy pork from someone local but I can barely fit the 1/4 of beef I get every year in our standup freezer as still usually have some from the previous year left too. Prior to buying a 1/4 I would usually find a sale on a whole ribeye or strip loin and just cut it up myself and freeze. I don't pay attention to the beef ads the stores run but Fareway usually has a deal on a whole loin once in awhile and they will usually even package it for you too. I'll do that with boneless pork loins too if Hy-Vee or someone is running a really good sale price, cut a roast off the fatter end then make various size chops out of the rest.
It's other departments too. Mrs. Velo worked through HS and college at a Hy-Vee in the bakery. Now pretty much everything is prepackaged and (maybe) thrown in the oven but there isn't a lot of making things fresh. We stopped getting the breakfast pizzas when they went from fresh made on site to a pie in the box. We bought them a couple of times but got tired of getting a pie with all the toppings over on one side of it. I talked to the manager about it once and showed him how pretty much every pie they had - probably 30 or more boxes - had the same problem.

Nobody seems to care about quality in that chain anymore.
 

CYdTracked

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Mar 23, 2006
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Had the wife pickup a whole pork loin from Costco for $20 yesterday, cut it up into Pork Chops - ended up getting 20 or so of them and couldn't have been happier with how they looked. Even my FiL said "thats some good looking pork"

The Grimes Hy-Vee was running a 99 cent/lb sale on whole pork loins 1 weekend in November. I really wanted to buy 1 or 2 but was picking up my beef in a week and worried about freezer space and my instinct was right as I had to play Tetris with the freezer just to get it all put away with no space left. Hoping to see a good deal on them this summer.
 

Cyched

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May 8, 2009
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The Grimes Hy-Vee was running a 99 cent/lb sale on whole pork loins 1 weekend in November. I really wanted to buy 1 or 2 but was picking up my beef in a week and worried about freezer space and my instinct was right as I had to play Tetris with the freezer just to get it all put away with no space left. Hoping to see a good deal on them this summer.

Trying to fit your meat into tight spaces gets easier with experience