Fareway ???

isu_oak

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I always tip a buck, but only about half of the kids take it.
 

acody

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I find their selection to be poor as well. Love the meat counter but really nothing else.

I do not get the Fareway experience. I think it's a huge scam, I think they are stuck in the 60"s and whatever you're gaining in price you are giving up more in quality and selection. I think it is a big step back into the past with little financial benefit. The meat counter is also a joke. Do you really think this is all a "fresh" meat counter because it's cramped with a bunch of high school kids with their fingers all over the meat and their cute butcher hats? I think it is really overrated. How much did you save a Fareway per trip? $2.00 or $2.57?
I think the big question is which executives are raking in the profits at Fareway? Just sayin. This is my opinion.
 

3TrueFans

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I do not get the Fareway experience. I think it's a huge scam, I think they are stuck in the 60"s and whatever you're gaining in price you are giving up more in quality and selection. I think it is a big step back into the past with little financial benefit. The meat counter is also a joke. Do you really think this is all a "fresh" meat counter because it's cramped with a bunch of high school kids with their fingers all over the meat and their cute butcher hats? I think it is really overrated. How much did you save a Fareway per trip? $2.00 or $2.57?
I think the big question is which executives are raking in the profits at Fareway? Just sayin. This is my opinion.
Someone has some issues.
 

JP4CY

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I do not get the Fareway experience. I think it's a huge scam, I think they are stuck in the 60"s and whatever you're gaining in price you are giving up more in quality and selection. I think it is a big step back into the past with little financial benefit. The meat counter is also a joke. Do you really think this is all a "fresh" meat counter because it's cramped with a bunch of high school kids with their fingers all over the meat and their cute butcher hats? I think it is really overrated. How much did you save a Fareway per trip? $2.00 or $2.57?
I think the big question is which executives are raking in the profits at Fareway? Just sayin. This is my opinion.

Um, not sure which Fareway you've been to but that's generally not my experience. Sure there is nothing fancy about the stores but that's fine by me.
I rarely hear anyone say their meat counter is a joke. People may not care for Fareway but their meat counters are usually very solid. I know my mom pretty much had the same Fareway meat guy wait on her for decades at the one in Carroll.
 

JP4CY

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Any debate intead of your weak take? What do you think or do you have some issues and are not capable of formulating an opinion?
Ummm what? Have a few too many brewski's tonight?
 

Frak

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We usually go to the Sommerset Fareway when we need a few things or when I want to buy meat to grill. If we have a huge list of things to get, then it's off to HyVee because you know that you'll find everything. I'd rather pay a little more at HyVee than have to stop at two places. The city did force Fareway to spruce up the new store, so it's a little more upscale than the average Fareway.
 

majorcyfan

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I do not get the Fareway experience. I think it's a huge scam, I think they are stuck in the 60"s and whatever you're gaining in price you are giving up more in quality and selection. I think it is a big step back into the past with little financial benefit. The meat counter is also a joke. Do you really think this is all a "fresh" meat counter because it's cramped with a bunch of high school kids with their fingers all over the meat and their cute butcher hats? I think it is really overrated. How much did you save a Fareway per trip? $2.00 or $2.57?
I think the big question is which executives are raking in the profits at Fareway? Just sayin. This is my opinion.


For your info, one of the DM TV stations did a meat counter cleaniness test about 10 yrs ago, just after Fareway came into DM......Guess who won with the lowest bacteria count......FAREWAY.......HYVEE and the then other grocers in town, all now gone, all used packaged meats, already packaged from the meat supplier.......contaminated at the packing plant and sealed up at the plant.....bacteria grew even more

Fareway fresh cuts most all of their meats right in the store, why do you think HYVEE added fresh cut meats in most all stores when it was not the case before. Much less chance to be contaminated than prepacked meats from the packing house.

Hyvee had to address the freshness and bacteria issue raised by the TV station investigation.

So much for your opinion and lack of info about the grocery industry....Stay away from discussing profits and incomes of grocery stores I personally know HyVee managers who made a million a yr as Store Directors. Older mgrs under the original salary plan.......Most mgr today are salary + bonus or profit sharing if u want to call it that, but not as lucrative as the old plan.

In the past Fareway was slow to bring in new items compared to HyVee, mainly a function of Fareway having a smaller warehouse and only one warehouse compared to HyVee, with 2 warehouses......Hy Vee always will have a larger in store selection than Fareway......fareway is much more rooted in conservatism in design, size and selection of products.....cause every Fareway store is totally paid for by the corp before it opens......Not so with HyVee. Their bank in Chariton funded all construction, borrowing against the trust fund.


I spent 30 yrs calling on all the Grocery warehouse in the midwest, and I was a 7 yr HyVee employee, 4 yr fulltime during high school and college. I am retired now and maybe not totally uptodate with everything going on in the last 2 yrs, but your opinion is just that ....and not based upon any facts.
 
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CykoAGR

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I do not get the Fareway experience. I think it's a huge scam, I think they are stuck in the 60"s and whatever you're gaining in price you are giving up more in quality and selection. I think it is a big step back into the past with little financial benefit. The meat counter is also a joke. Do you really think this is all a "fresh" meat counter because it's cramped with a bunch of high school kids with their fingers all over the meat and their cute butcher hats? I think it is really overrated. How much did you save a Fareway per trip? $2.00 or $2.57?
I think the big question is which executives are raking in the profits at Fareway? Just sayin. This is my opinion.

It is interesting that you say this. Again I could care less where you shop and I'm sure that the people at Fareway would rather not have you there anyway if this is your attitude.

The Fareway meat counter is thouroughly cleaned at least once EVERY week. This means ever last peice of meat is taken out and they sanitize the case. EVERYWHERE. No exceptions. If you watch the "kids" they will wash their hands about 150 times a day to keep them sanitized. The case is set up so that you order from cooked products (lunch meats) when your hands are clean and then move to raw meats and then finally to poultry. If you do not follow that order then if the "kid" is doing their job correctly they will wash their hands when going from poultry to anything else or from raw meat to lunch meat.

My question to you is what Hy-Vee/Dahls meat dept do you work at?
 

jpete24

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Best Meat - Fareway
Best Produce - Hy-Vee or Dahl's (depending on shipment day)

Cheapest Price on Groceries Overall - Wal-Mart.

No joke, I have a guy at work with four kids, and he's done the research overtime and everything. Comparing all the grocery stores, Wal-Mart beats them all in price, by 10-20%. It makes sense though, since Wal-Mart only needs to mark up their products by about fraction of a penny to make a profit on the overall store.
 

jpete24

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There isn't an Aldi anywhere near anything in this general region of this community.
 

Ms3r4ISU

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There isn't an Aldi anywhere near anything in this general region of this community.
There's one in Ames: 1301 Buckeye Avenue

I think Aldi is better (read that cheaper) for canned and boxed goods. I'd rather get produce and meat from Fareway or Hy-Vee. Or the farmers market when available.
 

wartknight

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I've been in Fareways all over the state and to paint them all with the same brush is like comparing Valley Stadium with Bondurant's field.
Not even close to the same.
The ones in Ankeny and Grimes are nicer than many stores anywhere, and others that I want to shower the second I leave.
 

CYdTracked

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That was the store on 74th, way back when it opened in 1998.

Yup and it didn't last long either. I worked mostly in that store including the first day it was opened so was cool to see the behind the scenes stuff that goes into opening a new store before the grand opening. The clothing department was really a dumb idea but that store is right down the street from their corporate offices (where coincidentally I wound up interning eventually thanks to them prefering to hire interns that already work for Hy-Vee) so that store is basically where they will try out anything first and if it goes over well they start using it in other stores. The clothing thing at the time they thought would be useful with all the hotels and offices in that area and some of the out of town people there may find it conveinent that if they forgot a tie they could stop by an buy something any hour of the day. Well I'm pretty sure that department never made money, the stuff was a little overpriced and no one really came there to shop for work clothes anyways so within a year they ditched it.
 

3TrueFans

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Fareway in downtown Ames is grilling burgers today, the new Fareway is grilling tomorrow I think.
 

majorcyfan

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Yup and it didn't last long either. I worked mostly in that store including the first day it was opened so was cool to see the behind the scenes stuff that goes into opening a new store before the grand opening. The clothing department was really a dumb idea but that store is right down the street from their corporate offices (where coincidentally I wound up interning eventually thanks to them prefering to hire interns that already work for Hy-Vee) so that store is basically where they will try out anything first and if it goes over well they start using it in other stores. The clothing thing at the time they thought would be useful with all the hotels and offices in that area and some of the out of town people there may find it conveinent that if they forgot a tie they could stop by an buy something any hour of the day. Well I'm pretty sure that department never made money, the stuff was a little overpriced and no one really came there to shop for work clothes anyways so within a year they ditched it.


HyVee found out quickly that higher end clothing does NOT sell in a grocery store as when they built a small clothing store inside the HyVee at 86th & Douglas. I told one of the head HyVee merchandizors it would never fly, he agreed, but they didn't consult us when the they redid their general merchadise layout. Women would never buy clothing for themselves in such an instore setting. Low end lawn and garden, logo T shirts and sweatshirts yes. A dress you might wear to the theatre, absolutely not.