Hy-Vee: Where There's a Helpful Credit Card Skimmer in Every Point of Sale Terminal
- Thread starter Trice
- Start date
What a dumb decision by them. When I was a courtesy clerk in high school, I use to have to power wash these machines, so disgusting. I can't believe they have people dragging those cans through the store.
I also don't like when the machine gets full and I have to alert someone that it needs emptied. They always, always, always give me the stink eye. I'm sure it's a pain to have to deal with but I don't like being can- and bottle-shamed.
I wonder if it's because they have entered too many new markets? When I worked there it was amazing how much business their stores did and some of the most profitable were the older established stores. But a lot has probably changed since then when places like WalMart and Target were considered a joke when it came to groceries.
Either you innovate, or you die. In the process, you’re going to have some misses. If it was easy, everyone would be running successful grocery store chains. I’m not going to knock them for trying new things.
That said, we used to eat periodically at HyVee deli before it was converted to a Market Grille. Have never once been in a Market Grille. As someone else mentioned, if I’m in the mood to eat out at a restaurant, going to HyVee never comes to mind. I do know people that love them though.
I give them credit for opening up an urban grocery store in downtown DSM. Again, something new for them and you can see they keep adjusting their offerings based on what the market is tell them.
They are now opening up the HyVee Fresh Markets. Once just opened on Merle Hay in Des Moines. Seems like an interesting concept….kind of like a convenience store on steroids.
They way they’ve penetrated the Twin Cities market, they must be doing something right. They couldn’t have been an inexpensive venture.
That said, we used to eat periodically at HyVee deli before it was converted to a Market Grille. Have never once been in a Market Grille. As someone else mentioned, if I’m in the mood to eat out at a restaurant, going to HyVee never comes to mind. I do know people that love them though.
I give them credit for opening up an urban grocery store in downtown DSM. Again, something new for them and you can see they keep adjusting their offerings based on what the market is tell them.
They are now opening up the HyVee Fresh Markets. Once just opened on Merle Hay in Des Moines. Seems like an interesting concept….kind of like a convenience store on steroids.
They way they’ve penetrated the Twin Cities market, they must be doing something right. They couldn’t have been an inexpensive venture.
But this isn't just a Hy-Vee thing. I go to Price Chopper and it's a complete joke.
Another topic for another time but I'm so over can redemption. Great idea when it first came out but times have changed. I've visited a lot of states that don't have can redemption and the ditches are not filled with cans.
A lot of things have changed. I remember the push for plastic bags over paper. Then a decade later we decided that plastic bags were even more evil. Now we try to remember to bring our own bags. I remember when everyone did drive up and we'd have 2-3 people just dedicated to loading groceries. Then that just kind of went away and I'm not sure why.
You are assuming the comment that they are struggling is valid, of course. I guess you read it on an internet sport's forum so there's that.
Except now they've decoupled it from the store, accounting wise. They probably still swing a big stick, but they don't get food from the attached grocery store, now. Or they can't just go grab a jug of milk off the store shelf anymore.
HyVee is always messing with their stuff. Got to give them credit for that. It'd be cheaper and easier not to.
We've not done can redemption in years. We've either put them in the recycling bin or donated them places looking for cans as their funding source.
I probably should do this but I'm just too cheap and drink too much pop.
Yeah I think this is a big miss on their part to stop offering pizza by the slice. Such an easy way to move product and can mark it up more that way too. I will say though that their Mia pizza is good and quick. The store by my office usually has a $5 7" pizza with any toppings you want and sometimes even deals like $7 or $8 larges too and they are ready in just over 5 minutes.
As for the clothing thing I don't get why they went back to that failed venture. I used to work at the store just down the road from the corporate offices in WDM and they had a Reichardt's clothing express that they ditched about a year later. Their idea was that in that location you have a lot of businesses and hotels so it would be convenient for people to shop for them if they forgot something while on travel or over lunch but the problem was the stuff was terribly high priced so I can't imagine it was ever in the black when you considered inventory and staffing costs.
That store at the time was one of the main test markets for new ideas and products because it was the largest store in the chain and just a mile down the road from corporate so was easy for the executives and marketing people to be able to keeps tabs on how new ideas were going. Not sure if that store is still their main test market anymore since the Urbandale store is probably their biggest one in town now and more modern in design to what they are doing for new builds. I will say though between working their part time in HS and college and doing 2 summer internships with their corporate IT department it's a great company to work for. If you are good at what you do they are very big into developing talent and promoting if you want to make a career with them. Didn't work out for me working for them coming out of college though because they didn't have any full time IT positions in the department I was interning for.
I met my wife at Hy-Vee and she worked in the deli at the time. I don't think they got most of their stuff from the store even back then. They would get the basics like eggs and milk but most of the stuff came from corporate. I may be talking out of my ass because it's been 30 years but I think most of the salads came in like buckets from corporate. I do know that they always did a ton of business with the breakfast crowd, decent lunch, but very little dinner. That was in Cedar Falls. When I worked at other stores, it was completely different.
Just thinking about some of the things I saw. One of the DSM stores had a baseball card shop. Nearly every store had a movie rental section. Most had pizza stores that were actually pretty decent. I think they like to try out these non food items because the margins are huge compared to the groceries.
All my remarks about can redemption are just me having fun and piling on Hy-Vee. I don't really care.
Good point about loading groceries, I don't know why that went away. Cost? Maybe it's an old service like pumping gas that people didn't want help with anymore.
Which is why I'm mostly a Fareway shopper. No other store offers me the opportunity to have a teenager make awkward small talk with me as he/she pushes the shopping cart to my car.
I think our stuff is still frozen but this is a good reminder to double check.
Welcome to the new normal.
As far as can redemption goes. I hate it but I am way too cheap to just throw a bunch of nickels out. Especially with my wife drinking a bottle/can or two of diet dew a day.
Welcome to the new normal.
As far as can redemption goes. I hate it but I am way too cheap to just throw a bunch of nickels out. Especially with my wife drinking a bottle/can or two of diet dew a day.
I know at the Urbandale one if you'd order fruit, they'd go grab it off the salad bar and put it in a bowl. One time, they told us that they ran out of milk but went back to grab one. Apparently that's no longer working like that.
Not sure about the deli, that could be a different animal, though.
Our HyVee has a rather large section that sells soaps, bath products, and crap like that. Like something you would find in a mall. I don't think I have ever seen a customer anyone in that area.
I used to like HyVee deli for breakfast. But waiting 30 minutes for food in an almost empty Market Grille is ridiculous.
I've become such a fan of Fareway where I pay a lot less for way more customer service. Self-checkouts at HyVee were about the last straw. "We don't do anything for you, and we charge you more."
I used to like HyVee deli for breakfast. But waiting 30 minutes for food in an almost empty Market Grille is ridiculous.
I've become such a fan of Fareway where I pay a lot less for way more customer service. Self-checkouts at HyVee were about the last straw. "We don't do anything for you, and we charge you more."
I have definitely seen off the shelf products being used in store at CR area Hy-Vees for Chinese and the other areas. Probably not everything obviously but it happens.
Back on the data breach, it's a little confusing why different areas or divisions in Hy-Vee would apply different data security measures. Have to think their internal auditors could pull a report or two that says their restaurants and gas pumps are at unnecessary risk, even if competitors do the same thing. I don't buy much Hy-Vee gas, but I have no reason to believe the stations/restaurants I do use have any better data security.
In my opinion, HyVee went away from what made them a great store. Their customer service has went to **** and when they rolled out the Market Grills, they bastardized their delis and that drove a lot of their older clientele away. Honestly, its hard to go into a HyVee and point out anything that they do well. The "new" store in Urbandale is their standard large market concept and that store absolutely sucks to shop.
I know a place in Des Moines where you take your bags of cans and all you have to do is drop them off and they give you $12 a bag, and a new bag for every bag of cans you drop off. It takes a matter of minutes, and I never have to touch a can. I've already said too much...
