Hy-Vee-What's up?

[Al_4_State]

Like Hyvee for produce and meat so I will shop there a lot. Sometimes Target if I don't need either of those things.

Hyvee liquor store is overpriced. Good selection but a lot of the local liquor stores has as good if not better pricing so I go there. Total Wine is the best place to go for liquor though.

Good story about that: last fall Singlespeed put their Hop Whirled hazy IPA. Decorah's Hy-Vee had it for $19.99 a 4 pack. Great beer, but outrageous price. The Ox & Wren (locally owned) liquor store in Cresco had it for $10.99, and I guarantee they weren't selling it below cost.

A week later I was in the liquor store of the Decorah Hy-Vee and they had brought the price on it back down to $11.99.

 

[Cyched]

What’s most people’s experience with Aisles Online been?

I didn’t have use of my car one weekend and filled out an online order at Target on Friday night. Had it delivered around 9-10 am the next day, which was pretty nice. Just curious how HyVee has been doing.

 

[CloniesForLife]

What’s most people’s experience with Aisles Online been?

I didn’t have use of my car one weekend and filled out an online order at Target on Friday night. Had it delivered around 9-10 am the next day, which was pretty nice. Just curious how HyVee has been doing.

The one time I used it I didn't have a great experience but that was at the beginning of the pandemic so who knows.

 

[CloniesForLife]

Good story about that: last fall Singlespeed put their Hop Whirled hazy IPA. Decorah's Hy-Vee had it for $19.99 a 4 pack. Great beer, but outrageous price. The Ox & Wren (locally owned) liquor store in Cresco had it for $10.99, and I guarantee they weren't selling it below cost.

A week later I was in the liquor store of the Decorah Hy-Vee and they had brought the price on it back down to $11.99.

Yeah I have just found their beer prices to be a buck or two higher. A lot of their liquor prices are really high. I have looked at whiskey there and it says it is a decent chunk of ($10-$15) but that sales price is still usually higher than Total Wine or the couple local places I typically go to.

 

[Malty Flannel]

I live in north Ankeny and go to both Hy-Vee and Fareway. Both have there positives and negatives.

I shop hyvee, fareway, and aldi all in north ankeny. Hyvee for booze and niche yogurts, fareway for meat and produce, aldi for all the other random crap

 

[Al_4_State]

I haven't heard that they are failing. They actually have acquired smaller privately owned grocery stores in small towns (places like Forest City, Denver, Oelwein etc) and converted them into "Hy-Vee Dollar Fresh" they have grown exponentially in the last year, creating jobs even. Certain store directors were promoted to "District Store Directors" and each store now has a "Store Manager". I agree what they're doing is strange, but in a sense, I think they were saved by covid. So many more people eating in and ordering groceries online. At the Hy-Vee I shop at, it's hard to find anyone stocking shelves and very few cashier lanes open. But dozens upon dozens of employees shopping for online customers (they won't help you either). Maybe they are looking to limit the grocery to online and put things inside the store, like nail salons, that you can't do online?

In Cresco and Waukon they took over the failed Shopkos and seem to be crushing it in both communities.

That said, they built a bigger (but still vastly scaled down from what you see in Des Moines or Minneapolis) Hy-Vee in Decorah and I always figured the only way that would work well is from drawing in those satellite communities. Instead Hy-Vee invested directly in the satellite communities.

 

[Trice]

In Cresco and Waukon they took over the failed Shopkos and seem to be crushing it in both communities.

That said, they built a bigger (but still vastly scaled down from what you see in Des Moines or Minneapolis) Hy-Vee in Decorah and I always figured the only way that would work well is from drawing in those satellite communities. Instead Hy-Vee invested directly in the satellite communities.

Yeah, I don't think anyone thinks HyVee itself will fail. It will be fine. It's all these weird ideas that fail, and sometimes in big and spectacular ways. They're obviously doing a lot of things right too.

 

[Cyientist]

That's your impression of it? It seems like 90% of the time they are just standing there blocking the way when I'm there. Zero urgency.

The tempo of a typical grocery shopper vs. an employed grocery shopper definitely is a rough combination in narrow isles.

 

[cycloner29]

The only time I go to Hy-Vee is the Urbandale one for their liquor sale in October, Sesame Chicken, and to take my empties back to turn them slips in to get a coffee at Starbuck's. The majority of our shopping is at Sam's Aldi's and Walmart. Meat is always Fareway, Sam's or Walmart.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Good story about that: last fall Singlespeed put their Hop Whirled hazy IPA. Decorah's Hy-Vee had it for $19.99 a 4 pack. Great beer, but outrageous price. The Ox & Wren (locally owned) liquor store in Cresco had it for $10.99, and I guarantee they weren't selling it below cost.

A week later I was in the liquor store of the Decorah Hy-Vee and they had brought the price on it back down to $11.99.

Side bar: do you ever watch the show “Love After Lockup”? One of the John’s this season lives in Cresco. He seems like he’s a white guy trying to be a Native American.

 

[CYdTracked]

Home Depot has this feature on their web site, which has proven very helpful for me when I just need to find one thing.

Menards does too and since the biggest store in the chain is is about a mile from my house in Grimes have used it several times to locate something because half the workers there don't know where anything is when I have asked.

One of the larger Hy-Vees going up just across 141 from Menards too that I can't wait to be open. I have a Fareway just a few blocks down the street from me but their selection for some items aren't nearly as good as Hy-Vee so we usually do main shopping at Hy-Vee and use Fareway more for when we need something right at the moment.

 

[NorthCyd]

I shop hyvee, fareway, and aldi all in north ankeny. Hyvee for booze and niche yogurts, fareway for meat and produce, aldi for all the other random crap

I should probably do Aldis more. I went in there once and it kind of freaked me out and I haven't been back.

 

[Thorongil Clone]

What’s most people’s experience with Aisles Online been?

I didn’t have use of my car one weekend and filled out an online order at Target on Friday night. Had it delivered around 9-10 am the next day, which was pretty nice. Just curious how HyVee has been doing.

We've used it fairly regularly for nearly a year and it has been a great experience on balance. A few mixups here and there, but we called and they more than made up for the issue.

We were a bit hesitant about ordering produce for pickup at first, but they've done a good job overall (not giving us crappy apples or avocadoes, etc).

 

[Cyinthenorth]

In Cresco and Waukon they took over the failed Shopkos and seem to be crushing it in both communities.

That said, they built a bigger (but still vastly scaled down from what you see in Des Moines or Minneapolis) Hy-Vee in Decorah and I always figured the only way that would work well is from drawing in those satellite communities. Instead Hy-Vee invested directly in the satellite communities.

I'm actually surprised it took Hy-Vee so long to wind up in Decorah. I'm from NE Iowa, and there are similar or even smaller towns up in that area that have had Hy-Vee stores for a long time (Waverly, Charles City etc)

 

[Gonzo]

Guess I'll remain in the CF minority & continue doing 90% of my grocery shopping at Hy-vee. I don't really care for the bath bomb/nail salon portions of their stores, but much prefer most of the rest over local alternatives (Fareway/Target/Walmart). I will go out of my way to get meat from Fareway, but that's about it.

Many here go on & on about how much higher their prices are than Fareway, but I honestly don't see it with most of what I buy. Maybe if you're not buying name brands? Whenever I get meat at Fareway, I look at various other items we might be out of & they're consistently the same or higher price than Hy-Vee (if they even carry the brand/flavor of what I'm looking for). I'm sure they are better on things like Fareway brand milk/eggs or something, but with sales considered especially Hy-vee is pretty damn close.

Hy-vee has more selection/variety of just about any product - things like chips, yogurt, any frozen food, kids snacks, cheese, baked goods, bread, salsa, BEER... I could go on, but you get the point. Their stores are clean & employees are nice - at least in my experience.

This. And I always make it a point to pick up a bag of Fareway brand onion rings on my way out. There's just something about those breaded, diced onion, uniformly sized little darlings that I can't quit.

 

[throwittoblythe]

What’s most people’s experience with Aisles Online been?

I didn’t have use of my car one weekend and filled out an online order at Target on Friday night. Had it delivered around 9-10 am the next day, which was pretty nice. Just curious how HyVee has been doing.

We've used it for 95% of our grocery shopping since the pandemic really set in last fall. I'd give it a B-. Generally, they get most things right, but we have had half a dozen times where things didn't make it into our vehicle that we paid for. They're good about making sure you get what you paid for if you call them, but it requires you to go in the store, which kind of defeats the purpose.

You can allow or not allow them to substitute items. Again, they're probably 80/20 good/bad here. Most of the time it's just picking up a different brand because one is out of stock, but we've had a few substitutions that were just downright silly. Things like: Ordered canned chili beans, Got canned chili with beans or Ordered cheddar popocorn, Got a bag of cheetos. We have also had more than one time where she sat there for 30-45 minutes past her scheduled pickup time to get her order.

It is nice to be able to look up what you purchased right on your phone, at least for me when I'm doing weekly budgeting. It's also nice to know my wife is only going to be gone for 30 minutes +/- because she's just picking up, instead of wandering the aisles for two hours. Once we're vaccinated, we'll definitely stop using it, I would guess.

 

[dawgpound]

I should probably do Aldis more. I went in there once and it kind of freaked me out and I haven't been back.

Aldi's is awesome now. Some of the best produce I have ever got is from Aldi.

 

[Gunnerclone]

I should probably do Aldis more. I went in there once and it kind of freaked me out and I haven't been back.

Aldi’s is gross to me.

 

[BigTurk]

Like Hyvee for produce and meat so I will shop there a lot. Sometimes Target if I don't need either of those things.

Hyvee liquor store is overpriced. Good selection but a lot of the local liquor stores has as good if not better pricing so I go there. Total Wine is the best place to go for liquor though.

Unfortunately Hy-Vee is the closest liquor store for me here in Ankeny. I went to Central City once but their beer selection was pretty meager. I am much more of beer guy than liquor guy. Suggestions?

 

[Cyched]

We've used it for 95% of our grocery shopping since the pandemic really set in last fall. I'd give it a B-. Generally, they get most things right, but we have had half a dozen times where things didn't make it into our vehicle that we paid for. They're good about making sure you get what you paid for if you call them, but it requires you to go in the store, which kind of defeats the purpose.

You can allow or not allow them to substitute items. Again, they're probably 80/20 good/bad here. Most of the time it's just picking up a different brand because one is out of stock, but we've had a few substitutions that were just downright silly. Things like: Ordered canned chili beans, Got canned chili with beans or Ordered cheddar popocorn, Got a bag of cheetos. We have also had more than one time where she sat there for 30-45 minutes past her scheduled pickup time to get her order.

It is nice to be able to look up what you purchased right on your phone, at least for me when I'm doing weekly budgeting. It's also nice to know my wife is only going to be gone for 30 minutes +/- because she's just picking up, instead of wandering the aisles for two hours. Once we're vaccinated, we'll definitely stop using it, I would guess.

Thanks. I’ve still been doing mainly in-person shopping even through all this. With the Target delivery it was super quick and I got everything I ordered. Just curious how others compare should I ever need to have another round delivered.