Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?
- Thread starter JP4CY
- Start date
Now that they aren't 24 hour stores, (Covid aftermath?) they just leave stocking carts all over the place. Overnights used to be a good job at a HyVee, IMO. The 3 am crowd was interesting to say the least.
I get that, but most of their seafood is frozen or thawed from frozen. Why discount that on Saturday? Why not just discount the fresh and the old thawed?
Well they freed up a bunch of that Indy car money.
Yeah Covid plus just finding enough part time help I think shifted some of the strategy with the hours. Even the side departments now close up earlier than they used to. When I worked part time in the late 90's early 2000's we had to staff the meat counter until 10pm and we'd re-open it at 6am. Many of the other side departments like the bakery and deli were the same way. Granted we usually had everything cleaned up before 9pm and if it was slow 1 guy would just stay until 10 to cover the full service counter and turn off the lights. I can't remember the last time I stopped in at Hy-Vee and saw anyone at the meat counter much past 8pm anymore. Now they are all closed up by 8pm in most stores it feels like and not even sure when they open back up but it sure is not 6am because I've done some early morning runs and the meat counter is still closed first thing in the morning. Even around 9am the seafood part is still being stocked at our local store.
Really the biggest problem Hy-Vee has had over the past decade is trying to turn their stores into 1 stop shops for things non-grocery. All that crap just wasted store space and surely was not generating revenue (probably losing money in most cases) which is why you don't see that stuff in the stores anymore. Hopefully under new leadership they get back to what made them good in the first place which is quality and service. They really grew because of that under Ron and Rick and feels like Randy really set them back by trying to add other unnecessary stuff to the stores or trying to "reinvent" what a grocery store is while they were expanding the footprint at a faster pace too.
I had a few years working for them and one factor was they were part of groups of chains from across the country that would exchange ideas. Sometimes the ideas worked and other times as you see did/do not work. Another problem has been finding people who are good at working in retail. It is not as easy as many people think it is, shift work, hours, weekends some holidays (even though that has improved as they now close on some that they did not in the past) being able to put up with people (customers who feel they should get special treatment) when something goes wrong. Much has changed since from when I first started there till todays stores.
I think Wal-Mart getting into the grocery business really messed with Hy-Vee. Instead of continuing to focus on being a quality grocery store, they tried to make it one-stop-shop just like @CYdTracked mentioned. I think the steps taken under the new CEO are in the right direction, but it will take a while to repair their image with customers. Consumers are much more cost-focused when it comes to groceries and the quality at Hy-Vee hasn't matched the premium prices that you paid.
Wal-Mart is not even that competitive with their grocery prices anymore IMO. I can find a lot of common items at Hy-Vee for lower prices than what Wal-Mart charges these days that they don't even have that advantage over Hy-Vee right now. That and the quality of fresh items like produce and meat at Wal-Mart were never as good either too IMO.
With three young kids, I've had to become more price conscious when I grocery shop. I noticed that the name brand items tended to be about the same between stores. The difference was usually in the store brand/generic stuff. There were many times when the Hy-Vee brand items were more expensive than the name brand. I think people would grab the store brand stuff just assuming it was cheaper without looking at the price.
Oh man I worked at HyVee in high school and the night shift crew that would come in at 10:00 was ROUGH.
If a brand price was less that would most likely be to a vendors deal/rebate to the company. If you are one of those cost driven shoppers you should check prices before you buy. I check ads but also look at shelf prices before I select an item.
Hey now, I worked night shift at Hy Vee when I was 19, and we were rough around the edges, but not rough lol. Did have a night shift cleaning guy who sold weed out of garbage bags though.
Wal-Mart's everyday shelf price buries HyVee's and it's not even close. HyVee has a significant leg up when you compare house brands though. A lot of the Great Value stuff is just not good.
Walmart's been in the grocery business for over 3 decades. Competent leadership would have figured out how to compete by now.
To be fair, many/most groceries chains are guilty of this and I understand why. The short term stockholder view requires growth every quarter. In food retail, where margins are single digit, the paths to growth are 1) Open new locations 2) Find high margin items.
I can't compare how Hy-Vee did vs other chains, but we all know the results.
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Bah, HyVee was the glam squad compared to SunMart crews back in the day. I worked SunMart during HS, including overnight shifts during the summers. Saw some very weird sh*t. Lol.
