Fairway is also much cheaper than Hy-vee, Hy-vee is probably the most expensive in town. Aldi > Fairway > Wal-mart/Cub > Hy-vee as far as price from what I've seen.
Yes you're right on the money Why? 25 yrs of wholesale grocery experience. HyVee makes a profit at the warehouse AND the store, whereas Fareway realizes their profit at the store only, not at the warehouse. A swing of 10-15 % in price can be higher in HyVee as a result. HyVee can match prices whenever they want to appear lower priced but your everyday grocery bill is ALWAYS HIGHER at HyVee.
All those extra services that HyVee offers, Cleaners, Post Office, Deli, Florist, etc? Most don't always pay for themselves, and the loss is made up in the rest of the store by overpricing where they can.
HyVee will always have better selection of sizes, wider variety of brands, gets new items quicker than will Fareway. Fareway will get new items way after HyVee does, with the exception of Proctor & (God) amble items.
Yrs back one of the DM TV stations ran a bacteria count on the meat depts of all area stores. Fareway, with it's then exclusive open meat counter, had the cleanest meat counters in the survey. HyVee, with its more packer packaged meats and store packaged meats, was worst. Now even HyVee has some more open meat case items.
Produce is better at HyVee, but you pay for it. This addage is ALWAYS TRUE.....There is NO FREE LUNCH.
I shop both stores, but I know what is better in each store.
I don't have an ax to grind against HyVee, I just know how they operate as 30 yrs in the business, 25 yrs in wholesale Grocery business after college as sales executive tells me so.