Hy Vee changes

[storewanderer]

I am very disappointed to see a lot of changes made to Hy Vee. They seem to be trying to make the stores all the same on how they run their fresh departments, pricing, and promotions. Some locations are still doing their own thing but those are fewer and fewer.

Also I saw some odd things. Case ready meat in multiple stores... what is this? In the midwest...? Looks like Wal Mart meat. Still has a large service meat counter and will do limited custom cuts. Reminds me of King Soopers. Maybe this is the way of the future .

They have many but not all stores on a EDLP program promising lowest prices in town on various center store items. Basically they're matching Wal Mart pricing.

In some stores they've closed hot food almost entirely. One store in a mid size city in IL which was pretty large had the cases all sitting there unused and covered with stickers or displays. I couldn't believe it. Other locations have standardized hot food offer with made to order pizzas or Asian bowls (way overpriced) compared to the old mall food court style pre-made but cheap hot food. I did find one store still on the old programs. It was all very strange.

Some stores were doing daily hot food specials like $10 steak dinner some nights etc. It appears food service traffic sunk and they're scrambling to get it back.

Also in Davenport they had heavily dressed police looking security in bullet proof vests mulling around the front ends. I think this is a very safe city, didn't see any lot cop cameras at Wal Marts or anything, so I don't know what that was all about.

Bakery mix and pricing is also now standardized between stores. Bakery seems to only open 6am to 6pm at all stores and most have large service counters. Prices have skyrocketed like 1.69 for a single basic donut and the departments are rather boring now compared to before when they had a huge mix, different items by store, different promotions, etc.

Pretty disappointed in the changes to Hy Vee. Still a great store. Have seen many chains go through this sort of thing over the years. It usually results in better profits but not as good for customers or employees.

[Bakeragr]

I worry about Hy-Vee. They seem to have taken their eyes off the prize and are slipping. They seem to think they're more remarkable than they really are. Their focus the past year seems to be their new market entries in TN, KY and IN, which make no sense. They've closed a few locations in Kansas City, which is probably one of their best markets. They seem to really spend big on image and make their stores look nice, but their prices are not what they once were. In Central Missouri, they had always beat Schnucks on price and were on par with Gerbes (Kroger), especially when they had promotions, but in our local market they're probably the most expensive now. Unless I'm needing something special that I can only find there, I'm not driving across town to go there, past Gerbes, Walmart, Aldi and Schnucks.

[retailfanmitchell019]

I worry about Hy-Vee. They seem to have taken their eyes off the prize and are slipping. They seem to think they're more remarkable than they really are. Their focus the past year seems to be their new market entries in TN, KY and IN, which make no sense.

I've suggested before that Hy-Vee should expand Colorado/Montana/Wyoming. Put a distribution center in Casper, WY. From there, they could put stores in Denver; Cheyenne, WY; Billings, MT; Bozeman, MT; Rapid City, SD; Scottsbluff, NE; Colorado Springs; Pueblo, CO all within a 6 hour drive. Those areas (especially Colorado) have fast population growth compared to the Upper South markets Hy-Vee is expanding to. The Upper South/Indiana isn't affected by the Kroger/Albertsons merger, unlike the western plains areas.

[Bakeragr]

I worry about Hy-Vee. They seem to have taken their eyes off the prize and are slipping. They seem to think they're more remarkable than they really are. Their focus the past year seems to be their new market entries in TN, KY and IN, which make no sense.

I've suggested before that Hy-Vee should expand Colorado/Montana/Wyoming. Put a distribution center in Casper, WY. From there, they could put stores in Denver; Cheyenne, WY; Billings, MT; Bozeman, MT; Rapid City, SD; Scottsbluff, NE; Colorado Springs; Pueblo, CO all within a 6 hour drive. Those areas (especially Colorado) have fast population growth compared to the Upper South markets Hy-Vee is expanding to. The Upper South/Indiana isn't affected by the Kroger/Albertsons merger, unlike the western plains areas.

I really think that WY/CO/Rapid City, SD would be a much better fit for Hy-Vee. Paired with market disruption, they could come in looking like a hero. Instead, they're racing to crowd markets with Kroger, Meijer and Publix. It doesn't make sense.

[rwsandiego]

I worry about Hy-Vee. They seem to have taken their eyes off the prize and are slipping. They seem to think they're more remarkable than they really are. Their focus the past year seems to be their new market entries in TN, KY and IN, which make no sense.

I've suggested before that Hy-Vee should expand Colorado/Montana/Wyoming. Put a distribution center in Casper, WY. From there, they could put stores in Denver; Cheyenne, WY; Billings, MT; Bozeman, MT; Rapid City, SD; Scottsbluff, NE; Colorado Springs; Pueblo, CO all within a 6 hour drive. Those areas (especially Colorado) have fast population growth compared to the Upper South markets Hy-Vee is expanding to. The Upper South/Indiana isn't affected by the Kroger/Albertsons merger, unlike the western plains areas.

I'm surprised Hy-Vee never entered the Chicago ex-urbs. The demise of Dominick's would have been a good time to act as would have been the years when Jewel had slipped at SVU's hands.

[Romr123]

Yeah, they could have put a band of stores out west of 355 and likely done pretty well as a Jewel alternative.

[storewanderer]

I worry about Hy-Vee. They seem to have taken their eyes off the prize and are slipping. They seem to think they're more remarkable than they really are. Their focus the past year seems to be their new market entries in TN, KY and IN, which make no sense. They've closed a few locations in Kansas City, which is probably one of their best markets. They seem to really spend big on image and make their stores look nice, but their prices are not what they once were. In Central Missouri, they had always beat Schnucks on price and were on par with Gerbes (Kroger), especially when they had promotions, but in our local market they're probably the most expensive now. Unless I'm needing something special that I can only find there, I'm not driving across town to go there, past Gerbes, Walmart, Aldi and Schnucks.

I agree with your view. I am not sure what has happened. Well, some management changes and staffing changes happened and this is the end result.

I can't figure out why Hy-Vee turned sour on continued expansion in Minneapolis and shifted to this strange TN/KY/IN expansion strategy but we will see how it works out.

Maybe the labor challenges since COVID really impacted Hy-Vee. Their format previously was so labor heavy. They had unbelievable amounts of staffing. I did notice their stores seemed to be less staffed now than before. Now labor has become more difficult to find and most costly so it does sort of make the old Hy-Vee format a lot more difficult to execute than pre-COVID.

We will see what happens. I do still consider this one of the best operators in the US.

[storewanderer]

Yeah, they could have put a band of stores out west of 355 and likely done pretty well as a Jewel alternative.

Put it this way: Given Hy-Vee appears to not be happy with Minneapolis results (the stores are extremely busy from what I saw there some years back), the dynamics of the Chicago market are much tougher than Minneapolis. There is much more competition in Chicago than Minneapolis. So I don't think those suburbs would work for Hy-Vee west of 355 in Chicago.

It seems like Hy-Vee likes markets that have Wal Mart and 1-2 other conventional operators present. That seems to be the type of market they can roll into and just sort of steamroll the competition with their larger store and wider product mix. Chicago has way too much other competition.

[retailfanmitchell019]

It seems like Hy-Vee likes markets that have Wal Mart and 1-2 other conventional operators present. That seems to be the type of market they can roll into and just sort of steamroll the competition with their larger store and wider product mix. Chicago has way too much other competition.

This is why Denver would be a great market for Hy-Vee to enter- only one strong conventional is present there- King Soopers. Safeway is weak out there (mark my words, that will be next Albertsons market exit assuming the merger fails). Denver could use room for another strong conventional operator. Unlike Chicago, KC, or Minneapolis/St. Paul, there are virtually no independents to speak of in the Denver metro.
Hy-Vee should also enter Oklahoma, Wichita, and midsize markets on the western plains (Cheyenne, Casper, Billings, etc).

[rwsandiego]

The ship to Chicago, anywhere in Chicago, sailed a long time ago.

Yeah, they could have put a band of stores out west of 355 and likely done pretty well as a Jewel alternative.

...I don't think those suburbs would work for Hy-Vee west of 355 in Chicago.

It seems like Hy-Vee likes markets that have Wal Mart and 1-2 other conventional operators present. That seems to be the type of market they can roll into and just sort of steamroll the competition with their larger store and wider product mix. Chicago has way too much other competition.

To clarify, the area west of 355/53 and east of Illinois 25 is smack in the middle of established suburbia. Hy-Vee wouldn't do well there. I was referring to west of Illinois 25 and/or Illinois 47.

Had Hy-Vee jumped when Safeway sold/closed Dominick's they would have had a chance, as many of the true competitors acquired former Dominick's stores. Had they acquired some or all of Dominick's, they could have restored the locations to their former glory and been a decent competitor for Jewel, as was Dominick's prior to Safeway getting its mitts on it. Instead, several other operators did that for them.