Hy-Vee-What's up?
- Thread starter dmclone
- Start date
As someone who lives downtown, that's disappointing. I haven't been to a Hy-Vee health market. Not sure what's available for purchase in a Hy-Vee health market but it doesn't sound like it would do better than what they have now with a grocery store.
Downtown definitely needs grocery stores. Having something along the cleaned up Dico sure wouldn't hurt.
From what I had gathered it wasn't doing great before the pandemic...
I live near the WDM Health Market that they are closing this week.. It was useless outside of fresh produce, milk and take and bake pizza. But EVERYTHING was pretty pricey.. We are getting a Fareway soon and I couldn't be more excited to avoid Hy-Vee skyrocketing prices
Should have brought Mark Wahlberg back, he'd have saved it.
From 2017: Mark Wahlberg makes surprise appearance during tour of downtown Hy-Vee
Mark Wahlberg gave a media tour of the downtown Des Moines Hy-Vee a boost of star power.
www.desmoinesregister.com
I just want ONE option for a decent grocery selection downtown. I don't do my full on grocery shopping at the downtown location but it's the only option and was really nice for picking up a few things a couple of times a week. I don't even mind paying a bit more for those occasions. It really isn't that big of a deal to drive 10-15 minutes instead 2 minutes or a short walk but it was nice.
It hard to justify a store downtown when so many downtown people say "I don't do my full grocery shopping downtown". I've heard downtown people complain for decades about not having a grocery store. If Hy-Vee can't make it work, there is no justification for a store downtown.
I get that. It feels like a lot of people were always in there grabbing a few things but that might not add up to much. The reason I don't do my full grocery shopping at that location was primarily the complete lack of full size carts. I can't fit 7-10 days of grocery shopping in a tiny cart. For what seemed like less than a month they did add some full size carts but they are gone again.
I've had the same experience. I wish they would have just opened a smaller store similar to 60th and Ashworth.
Anytime I just needed 1 or 2 things, the HealthMarket would only have some weird brand I'd never heard of that was 2-3x more expensive.
I wasn't surprised at all they are closing it (I'm pretty pumped to check out the liquor store they are opening in it's place).
I, too, am someone who gets an asthma flair-up from too much perfume-ish scented things.
Asthma/Allergy sufferers, unite!!! (but slowly and gently ... we don't want to get worked up!)
I, too, am someone who gets an asthma flair-up from too much perfume-ish scented things.
Asthma/Allergy sufferers, unite!!! (but slowly and gently ... we don't want to get worked up!)
My triggers are perfume smelly stuff and smoke. Whiff of incense, might as well head straight to ER.Have heard some of the HyVees will wrap the soap bombs so not as bad, but they won’t do that here. The whole concept of dumping something in tub that a bunch of people have touched kind of creeps me out even if I could breathe within 100 yards of one.
Same here, I can't tolerate any of that stuff.
That’s same experience I have there.Add to it there were only self checkout with limited assistance and it just wasn’t an enjoyable experience.
I don’t live downtown full time but do own a condo that at times will spend up to 5 day stretches 1 or 2 times a month, so need groceries. Always nice to have the HyVee for quick runs but they never built it to be a “all my shopping here” type place so it’s no surprise it is failing. I truly believe a smaller Fareway would do fantastic down there as the Court Ave HyVee never had a real identity as it felt more like a liquor store and restaurant that happened to sell some food. Most people in my building gave the HyVee a shot but gave up on it as it just didn’t work since it truly wasn’t a full service grocery store.
I miss the old Hy-Vee basic ass kitchen Walk up, order my smothered hashbrowns or basic breakfast, sit down with a newspaper, listen to the old guys talk sports while sipping their coffees.
Way back in the day my dad and I would go sometimes for breakfast if we were hauling brush/tree limbs to the dump.
I remember it was 99c for 2 eggs, 2 bacon or sausage, 2 pieces of toast.
We'd probably be there atleast an hour. The Big Peach was my section.
Why did the downtown one in it's current format fail? I don't get downtown much at all, but the few times I walked through the store I thought it was amazing. Reminded me of some of the nice urban grocers in downtown Chicago.
Just a wild guess here.
A large portion of the store focuses on dining. Between people not wanting to dine at Hy-Vee along with workers not being downtown to have lunch, it always seems pretty dead. I thought the downtown lunch crowd was always overplayed. Most of the downtown workers are a long ways from Hy-Vee and people are not going to walk 3/4 mile to get lunch when they have an hour. Of course HV is doubling down and creating some more dining options that no one will use.
As we've seen from other posts here and other places, people like to fantasize the whole "live downtown, never drive, shop downtown". This isn't reality in DSM. Most get in their cars and go get groceries or do delivery. The store just isn't very busy from what I've seen. I also think people like to do big shops and this HV isn't really built that way. It's built to have you visit multiple times per week.
How many people actually live walking distance to this Hy-Vee? If I have to get in my car and drive, I may not choose the downtown HV.
