Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?

[fanaticagain]

This started a while ago. It’s based more on delivery, grocery pick up, and spending $50-60 on a certain day now. I used to occasionally approach $2-2.50 gallon savings. I don’t come anywhere near that anymore. I get the notices I have rewards expiring and am usually around fifty or sixty cents. Before I’d always use it when it approached the price per gallon because I wasn’t sure how it would be handled if I went over.

I should have noted we do most of our Hy-Vee shopping online and do pick-up. Almost always order on a Sunday. I realize my case is anecdotal, but it feels to me like it's an across-the-board cut in the rewards.

Mind you, I'm not going to stop shopping at Hy-Vee because of it, though we may not get gas there as often if the discounts aren't being offered.

 

[g4ce]

I believe @alarson is correct. I believe a lot of people do think Fareway is cheaper than Hyvee though I never have.

Here is my rundown on grocery stores:
Hyvee: expensive, good selection, clean, orderly, modern
Fareway: expensive, good meat department, "old school" vibe
Aldi: inexpensive, up and down produce quality, good for food staples that don't need to be name brand
Walmart; cheap, where to buy name brand grocery items typically

 

[ScottyP]

I believe @alarson is correct. I believe a lot of people do think Fareway is cheaper than Hyvee though I never have.

Here is my rundown on grocery stores:
Hyvee: expensive, good selection, clean, orderly, modern
Fareway: expensive, good meat department, "old school" vibe
Aldi: inexpensive, up and down produce quality, good for food staples that don't need to be name brand
Walmart; cheap, where to buy name brand grocery items typically

I used to be mainly Hy-Vee because my wife had worked at Hy-Vee in high school and in college so she was a loyal customer. I began to notice that I would save $20 - $40 a week on my weekly grocery order when I shopped at Fareway that week. The past couple of years, the price is about the same.

Now I do a lot of my weekly groceries from Aldi and supplement with Hy-Vee and Fareway. Main issue I have with Aldi is that produce availability is hit or miss (Brussels sprouts and Romaine lettuce are usually out of stock) and certain generic staples just aren't good (baked beans, coffee creamer).

I used to never go into Aldi because I thought it was a grocery store for poor people. I realized that wasn't the case and appreciated the surprising selection, produce quality and how quickly I can get in/out of the store. I've also been really happy with their grocery pickup so far.

 

[g4ce]

I grew up poor so we would do 90%+ of our grocery shopping at Aldi. Then go to Hyvee and Fareway when they had items on sale that we needed or specialty name brand items that we couldn't get at Aldi.

 

[wenkeej]

I believe @alarson is correct. I believe a lot of people do think Fareway is cheaper than Hyvee though I never have.

Here is my rundown on grocery stores:
Hyvee: expensive, good selection, clean, orderly, modern
Fareway: expensive, good meat department, "old school" vibe
Aldi: inexpensive, up and down produce quality, good for food staples that don't need to be name brand
Walmart; cheap, where to buy name brand grocery items typically

I've done a price breakdown a couple of times on this thread between HyVee, Fareway and Walmart. Walmart always won, first time HyVee was a little cheaper than Fareway and the second time it was a wash. Here's the links to those posts.

#965
#1745

 

[Gonzo]

I grew up poor so we would do 90%+ of our grocery shopping at Aldi. Then go to Hyvee and Fareway when they had items on sale that we needed or specialty name brand items that we couldn't get at Aldi.

Similar, we'd shop for whatever we needed whereever the best price was that week... in CR/Marion back in my day we had Hy-Vee and Sunmart (formerly Me Too) and Econofoods, then there were a couple of independent stores like Barlow's and another one that I can't remember the name of, it was on Blairs Ferry Road just off the intersection with 1st/7th ave across from Thomas Park. I can't remember if Aldi's was a thing back in the 70s/80s, but it was definitely before Walmarts were around.

 

[kcdc4isu]

I grew up poor so we would do 90%+ of our grocery shopping at Aldi. Then go to Hyvee and Fareway when they had items on sale that we needed or specialty name brand items that we couldn't get at Aldi.

I grew up in a family that was bottom middle class and lived at number of places in Iowa. Some had Hy-Vee and some did not but from jr high to grad high school my mom shopped Hy-Vee so I started when I left home. Spent 3 1/2 years in Texas in the service but when I came back it was back to Hy-Vee. I then went to work for them and retired after 32 years so you can see why I do most of my shopping there with some at Costco. Many things have changed over the years at HV some for the better and some not so good. People must decide where to shop some because of location, some because of variety/choices of product I don't shop Aldi as I want to keep profits here in the US.

 

[dmclone]

Remember when people used coupons? It always surprised me how much people bitched about high prices, but very few used coupons. We literally had books of coupons free at the register/front door, and most people couldn't take a few minute to save a massive amount of money.

 

[Saul_T]

Walmart; cheap, where to buy name brand grocery items typically

I don't care if WalMart is giving away food. I will not step foot in that store. I don't know where the people who shop at WalMart exist, because I've never seen those kind of people in the wild.

 

[alarson]

I don't care if WalMart is giving away food. I will not step foot in that store. I don't know where the people who shop at WalMart exist, because I've never seen those kind of people in the wild.

Pickup/delivery gives them a bit of the audience that'd never go into the stores

 

[3TrueFans]

Hy-vee is good if you need groceries and also like lighting money on fire but don't have time to do both separately.

 

[CycloneDaddy]

I don't care if WalMart is giving away food. I will not step foot in that store. I don't know where the people who shop at WalMart exist, because I've never seen those kind of people in the wild.

Wal-Mart are my kind of people. I go to the Grimes location to hang out even if I dont need anything.

 

[Saul_T]

Hy-vee is good if you need groceries and also like lighting money on fire but don't have time to do both separately.

I don't think I had been in a WalMart in maybe 10 years until last weekend when we were out of town and needed some medicine. Have they dramatically increased the number of shelves? It just seemed packed to the gills with tons of just crap.

@drmwevr08 you can dumb my post all you want, but there's a reason there's a website for these folks. WalMart and the halls of a high school are the only two places I've seen it acceptable to wear your pajamas outside of bedtime hours.

 

[3TrueFans]

I don't think I had been in a WalMart in maybe 10 years until last weekend when we were out of town and needed some medicine. Have they dramatically increased the number of shelves? It just seemed packed to the gills with tons of just crap.

@drmwevr08 you can dumb my post all you want, but there's a reason there's a website for these folks. WalMart and the halls of a high school are the only two places I've seen it acceptable to wear your pajamas outside of bedtime hours.

Dunno, I suppose most things will look different if you go a decade between trips. I haven't been to Hy-Vee in a minute, I assume people must only wear suits and formal attire while shopping?

 

[CycloneDaddy]

Dunno, I suppose most things will look different if you go a decade between trips. I haven't been to Hy-Vee in a minute, I assume people must only wear suits and formal attire while shopping?

Pretty good chance that Im not wearing underwear at either Hy Vee or Walmart.

 

[Gonzo]

I don't think I had been in a WalMart in maybe 10 years until last weekend when we were out of town and needed some medicine. Have they dramatically increased the number of shelves? It just seemed packed to the gills with tons of just crap.

@drmwevr08 you can dumb my post all you want, but there's a reason there's a website for these folks. WalMart and the halls of a high school are the only two places I've seen it acceptable to wear your pajamas outside of bedtime hours.

I see this at my Hy-Vee almost every day. America has long become a nation of slobs. It's embarrassing but the truth.

 

[3TrueFans]

Pretty good chance that Im not wearing underwear at either Hy Vee or Walmart.

It's a crazy world, but it's nice knowing some things just stay the same.

 

[nfrine]

Personally, I go to Dollar General. You don't have to dress up like you do at Wal-Mart....

 

[wgleason]

This started a while ago. It’s based more on delivery, grocery pick up, and spending $50-60 on a certain day now. I used to occasionally approach $2-2.50 gallon savings. I don’t come anywhere near that anymore. I get the notices I have rewards expiring and am usually around fifty or sixty cents. Before I’d always use it when it approached the price per gallon because I wasn’t sure how it would be handled if I went over.

If you've earned more than the cost per gallon, you pay the 9/10ths so it's 18 cents for 20 gallon limit.
Had that a couple times we bought a bunch of gift cards.

 

[IASTATE07]

Personally, I go to Dollar General. You don't have to dress up like you do at Wal-Mart....

I frequent DG for convenience. Their pricing is similar to Wal Mart until you realize some of their products have fewer items in the box or fewer ounces.