Where I work, we've picked up a couple of former Hy-Vee IT people (Who have been great). They mentioned that when Edeker came into the IT area the Imperial March from Star Wars would play on every speaker. Not surprisingly, he loved it.
Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?
- Thread starter JP4CY
- Start date
I appreciate how Fareway does their online orders --- produce workers pick the produce, meat employees package and pick the meat, regular grocery workers get the other things. I've always had good produce this way.
You need a Kwik Star/Shop. We get A LOT of dairy from them.
I can park at KS, get potatoes, onions, bananas, hot dog buns, milk, eggs, and be back in my vehicle in 4 minutes, and cheaper than most grocery stores.
I will also add I didn't go to the race but I did listen to the broadcast on Sirius radio while driving back to Iowa from Indiana. The broadcast talked a lot about how much HyVee had done and how they made it an event for all people and not just race fans. They were very complimentary of HyVee.
Wonder how many IT workers had to be let go to pay for all those radio shoutouts
We buy our milk and eggs mostly from KS. Cheaper and quicker in and out.
One of my son’s best friends quit right before the IT massacre for a job at a hospital. Is so much happier without that stress.
Yeah, it pretty much was nationally a weekend long commercial for them. Plus a little more. I follow racing a llittle bit and the guys I follow have been talking about it quite a bit, even this week. So their name is still out there.
Hopefully they turn some of the strategy and operating decisions to someone other than Randy as I can't imagine that Ron Pearson and Ric Jurgens are thrilled with the direction he took things. They need to get back to the roots of what made them successful and that means getting away from all these non-grocery things like the nail saloons and fitness equipment and focusing more on the grocery and service side of things. Hell the nail saloon in their new crown jewel store in Grimes didn't even stay open for a full year before they shut that down and I can't imagine they have sold a ton of shoes and treadmills either. That nail saloon space is just sitting empty right now and I know a lot of people in town are hoping they expand the pharmacy into that because they undersized the pharmacy in that store and its always a cluster over there trying to get anything.
I think they need to ditch Wahlburgers too and go back to their own in-house cafe model like the Market Grille was. Use that as an extension of the store to promote your products with a more diverse menu. The Wahlburgers menu sucks and it's not good enough food for me to make it a place I want to eat often. They used to have great Sunday brunch buffets at some stores and good dinner menu options when they had the Market Grille that I would love to see return. Just get back to where Hy-Vee felt more like a grocery store and not a high priced circus of stuff that doesn't really need to be in a grocery store.
Their meat is hit or miss depending on the store. They sometimes have good deals on brats or pork but I buy my beef raised by my brother in law so I don't pay much attention to the beef in any store anymore. I will say when Hy-Vee made the decision to go more pre-pack for beef around 2000 the quality went way down. I worked in the meat dept in HS and college at Hy-Vee and when they had actual meat cutters cutting the stuff that went out in the self service case the quality was much better as those guys would not put some crappy looking piece of meat on a tray and now they only thing they have quality control over is what they cut that goes in the service meat case. I know when they first made that change we got a lot of customer complaints about the pre-packed stuff as it was not nearly as good or eye appealing.
I think they need to ditch Wahlburgers too and go back to their own in-house cafe model like the Market Grille was. Use that as an extension of the store to promote your products with a more diverse menu. The Wahlburgers menu sucks and it's not good enough food for me to make it a place I want to eat often. They used to have great Sunday brunch buffets at some stores and good dinner menu options when they had the Market Grille that I would love to see return. Just get back to where Hy-Vee felt more like a grocery store and not a high priced circus of stuff that doesn't really need to be in a grocery store.
Their meat is hit or miss depending on the store. They sometimes have good deals on brats or pork but I buy my beef raised by my brother in law so I don't pay much attention to the beef in any store anymore. I will say when Hy-Vee made the decision to go more pre-pack for beef around 2000 the quality went way down. I worked in the meat dept in HS and college at Hy-Vee and when they had actual meat cutters cutting the stuff that went out in the self service case the quality was much better as those guys would not put some crappy looking piece of meat on a tray and now they only thing they have quality control over is what they cut that goes in the service meat case. I know when they first made that change we got a lot of customer complaints about the pre-packed stuff as it was not nearly as good or eye appealing.
I know people who worked there in accounting and are much happier after they left for another company.
*Forced to step aside is what I heard
Wahlburger and Minnesota expansion failures did that. Not 1 event in Newton last Saturday
While I agree with you that they need to refocus on the core business, the experimenting with other lanes of business goes back before Randy. When the Jordan Creek store opened that was under Ron Pearson. They had a Reichardts Express selling men's suits and dress clothes, and a pet department with live fish. I don't think either one lasted a year. They also tried out the HyVee Gas concept there a couple years after the store opened. That was obviously much more successful.
I also recall one of the Ames stores having an optical department, that was probably in the Ric Jurgens era.
Dwight Vredenburg has to be rolling over in his grave, was a good man
