I think Hy-Vee has had a ton of screw ups over the last decade. With that said, there is a tendency for people to hate companies the bigger they get. There is also a tendency to always root for the guy in 2nd.
e.g. Like everyone else, I find Hy-Vee to be expensive, they make some dumb store decisions, their customer service has taken a hit, their delivery service has been a complete fail, etc. On the other hand, they do a lot of things right. As an overall package, they are hard to beat. Fareway meat department has better service but if you look at the total package (Meat, Seafood, Cheese Island, Deli, Bakery, Liquor, Frozen Foods, Grocery), they are hard to match in Iowa.
Then you have a place like Aldi's, which everyone seems to blow. Yes, they are dirt cheap. Basically everything else about the store sucks. Yes, some of their things are "not bad for the price". Produce sucks, meat sucks, no bakery, alcohol section sucks, etc. Yes, the few times I went, my bill was super low. A big part of this is because I couldn't find half the **** I needed.
With all of this said, I'm roughly the same distance from 2 Hy-Vee's, 2 Fareway's, Target, and Super Wal-Mart. If I'm buying beer, 86th st. Hy-Vee. If I'm buying just meat, Grimes Fareway. Normal grocery shop and don't need anything special, Wal-Mart. Big shop with a lot of needs, Grimes Hy-Vee. When Dahls was open, I would shop there for most things, strictly because of distance.