Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?

[jcisuclones]

when did they get rid of that? They still do it in Newton.

But how hard is it to push a cart to your car and load your own groceries?

I worked at the Valley West location in high school, and when I started there we had to offer it to them after we got done bagging their groceries. Then the store got renovated into the "new hyvee" look and part of the renovation was taking out that door. Since we had a more older clientele (who were already pissed off at the renovation), we would ask the older folks if they would like help out to their car. That no longer was a thing after I left a couple years later. Jordan Creek hyvee had the same thing, but they turned that into an aisles online pickup spot until they built the satellite building in the parking lot. Maybe some stores have the option still outside the Des Moines, but it, and the "helpful smile in every aisle" have gone by the wayside under the new model.

 

[jcisuclones]

That takes me back. When I first started with Hy-Vee at 16, that was gone, but we'd still offer to carry out or have them drive up.

Fast forward to when I stopped working there just a few years ago, the question doesn't even get asked anymore. Most HS kids acted shocked/horrified when I'd ask them to help somebody out to their car. Working with todays youth made leaving that job so easy.

I'm not sure why or when Hy-Vee moved away from the mandatory drive up or carry out model. No money it I assume would be the reason, but then again, Fareway still does it.

I saw the same thing back around 2013-15 when I worked there. Fareway does it smart, so they don't have to hire anyone to go get the carts from the parking lot. Plus it's quality customer service.

 

[dmclone]

Removing drive up is one thing I think they did right. I also like that they have the self checkout. I tried the "checkout while your shopping" thing but I didn't like that as much.

 

[GMackey32]

Removing drive up is one thing I think they did right. I also like that they have the self checkout. I tried the "checkout while your shopping" thing but I didn't like that as much.

I like doing self checkout only because I'm faster at checking out and bagging that most employees thanks to my years at Fareway growing up.

 

[carvers4math]

Our HyVee will wheel out groceries for people if they ask but then leave them standing waiting by the door for someone to come from the back to do it. When I was still going in there, I helped a poor old guy with a walker out who said he had been waiting 20 minutes and was worried about his ice cream.

 

[jcisuclones]

Our HyVee will wheel out groceries for people if they ask but then leave them standing waiting by the door for someone to come from the back to do it. When I was still going in there, I helped a poor old guy with a walker out who said he had been waiting 20 minutes and was worried about his ice cream.

That's just bad management by the up front managers. Whatever courtesy clerk bags up the groceries should be the one who loads up the car. Pretty common sense if you ask me.

 

[CYdTracked]

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.

Oh yeah, I was there the day the West Lakes store opened and though the Reichardts Express was the dumbest thing ever. Their idea was the store was in an area with a lot of hotels and businesses so people may want to shop over lunch or something. It was done within a year because they hardly sold anything. No one goes to a grocery store to buy a suit or an overpriced tie or socks...

 

[CYdTracked]

Now that there (bolded) is funny. I apologize.
-Larry the Cable Guy.

Thank you grammar/spelling police! LOL, yeah I didn't proofread that one too well...

 

[carvers4math]

That's just bad management by the up front managers. Whatever courtesy clerk bags up the groceries should be the one who loads up the car. Pretty common sense if you ask me.

During the weekday times before after work crowd, they frequently just had checkers also bagging. Guessing they didn’t want the checker to leave for a few minutes.

 

[dmclone]

When I worked at the East Euclid Hy-Vee, we had a baseball card shop. Back then a lot of stores had Pizza Express, which had some decent breakfast pizza. The Deli's had good/cheap breakfast. We also had video rental

 

[Cyclones01]

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.

Can confirm. I was in the office once when this happened.

 

[carvers4math]

Vader had better skills than Randy

 

[CYdTracked]

Our HyVee will wheel out groceries for people if they ask but then leave them standing waiting by the door for someone to come from the back to do it. When I was still going in there, I helped a poor old guy with a walker out who said he had been waiting 20 minutes and was worried about his ice cream.

I don't think the new stores they are building lately even have drive up lanes now. Pretty sure the Grimes one does not. Surprised there are still stores that will push the carts out because most of the time they don't even have enough people available to bag the groceries for the checkers. That was one of my biggest pet peeves because when they got busy and were short handed the front end shift manager would basically get on the intercom and ask every side department to send someone up to bag. It was a common practice and was only meant to get them through a 10-15 minute busy period when they were short staffed up front but some of the managers would abuse the heck out of it and try to keep you there as long as they could. I know our meat manager usually told us to leave after 10 minutes because our department needed the help too and sometimes we would even be so busy at the counter he would tell us not to go and would call up front and tell the manager to shove it because we had already helped them out enough times that day. It got so bad one time he started writing down the minutes we had someone up there helping then told the accounting manager to bill that to the grocery not his department because he wasn't going to have that time come out of his operating expense when he wasn't getting use of the help he scheduled.

 

[carvers4math]

I don't think the new stores they are building lately even have drive up lanes now. Pretty sure the Grimes one does not. Surprised there are still stores that will push the carts out because most of the time they don't even have enough people available to bag the groceries for the checkers. That was one of my biggest pet peeves because when they got busy and were short handed the front end shift manager would basically get on the intercom and ask every side department to send someone up to bag. It was a common practice and was only meant to get them through a 10-15 minute busy period when they were short staffed up front but some of the managers would abuse the heck out of it and try to keep you there as long as they could. I know our meat manager usually told us to leave after 10 minutes because our department needed the help too and sometimes we would even be so busy at the counter he would tell us not to go and would call up front and tell the manager to shove it because we had already helped them out enough times that day. It got so bad one time he started writing down the minutes we had someone up there helping then told the accounting manager to bill that to the grocery not his department because he wasn't going to have that time come out of his operating expense when he wasn't getting use of the help he scheduled.

Our town has a very elderly population. Some of them just get stuff at Casey’s or the dollar store because the HyVee is a lot of walking past crap you don’t need for the food

 

[CyPhallus]

Its fascinating how terrible neighboring State's grocery stores are.
College friend was from the Cities, I tagged along with him to Cub Foods once in Ames, and I'm like "this place is a real ****** Dahls."
I feel like the closest decent grocery chain is Mariano's in Chicago burbs.

Iowans are blessed with awesome gas stations and grocery stores. You don't realize what we really have until you take a road trip and have to search for a gas station that you are actually willing to use the bathroom at.

 

[cmjh10]

HyVee vs Fareway argument. The most Iowa thing ever?

 

[JP4CY]

HyVee vs Fareway argument. The most Iowa thing ever?

Let's up this and compare HvVee BBQ to Hickory Park.

 

[carvers4math]

HyVee vs Fareway argument. The most Iowa thing ever?

Nope. Farmer wave. Kroger’s vs Martin’s was a thing when I lived in Indiana

 

[cyclonpediaJoe]

This is ants at a picnic

 

[SCNCY]

Iowans are blessed with awesome gas stations and grocery stores. You don't realize what we really have until you take a road trip and have to search for a gas station that you are actually willing to use the bathroom at.

Preach.

After moving to Rhode Island from Kansas City, I realized this. The one thing that really annoyed me was the meat department at the grocery stores where we lived. One didn't even have a meat counter, the other did, but it was only two small glass windows wide, so barley the selection you could get at a typical Mid-west grocery. Other grocery stores I'd walk in to outside of our town were similar, so it wasn't just isolated to our stores. Also, when my wife makes my birthday cheese cake, no Oreo bread crumbs. We have to buy a pack of Oreos and twist the cookies off.

I'd say that for gas stations, I haven't seen a noticeable difference in what I could get between the two regions. All offer similar food and convenience goods.