Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?

[JP4CY]

Are employee discounts that common at grocery stores? Im surprised they had one in the first place.

(serious question)

Just a quick Goog of Kroger:

Do Kroger Employees Get Discounts?​

Yes, Kroger offers employee discounts for all its staff. All part-time and full-time associates are eligible for a 10 % discount on groceries.

They also enjoy a 15% discount on home goods from Kroger brand products. The discount goes up to 20% during specific holidays like the 4th of July and Christmas.

 

[isufbcurt]

So I went to sams club to buy their freshly squeezed OJ. None of the employees knew where it was and after a while they said they didn’t have any. So that was a swing and a miss. Also their cosmic crisp apples are about half the size of hyvee. I love the huge ones. Hyvee has the best apples from anyone that I’ve seen. That’s too bad was hoping I could be done with hyvee.

I'm sure you do

 

[KnappShack]

Just a quick Goog of Kroger:

Do Kroger Employees Get Discounts?​

Yes, Kroger offers employee discounts for all its staff. All part-time and full-time associates are eligible for a 10 % discount on groceries.

They also enjoy a 15% discount on home goods from Kroger brand products. The discount goes up to 20% during specific holidays like the 4th of July and Christmas.

Wait?!? Home goods!

How dare Kroger sell stuff other than groceries! I bet they don't even make customers drop a quarter for a cart!

There's a price to pay for generic, off brand food!

 

[ISUcyclones11]

Just a quick Goog of Kroger:

Do Kroger Employees Get Discounts?​

Yes, Kroger offers employee discounts for all its staff. All part-time and full-time associates are eligible for a 10 % discount on groceries.

They also enjoy a 15% discount on home goods from Kroger brand products. The discount goes up to 20% during specific holidays like the 4th of July and Christmas.

Dang I definitely never got that in my Fareway days. Loved working there otherwise.

 

[wenkeej]

I been reading the ongoing pi****g match about who's store is cheaper. So I decided to give myself an afternoon project and compared prices between HyVee, Fareway and WalMart. All prices are pulled from online shopping at Ames stores and I created a list of 33 standard grocery items (actual found online from another site that did something similar). I found prices for name brand and store versions, where possible, and either used sale prices if all stores were running a sale or took the regular price to normalize between stores. Here are the results.

33 Items	HyVee Name Brand	Fareway Name Brand	Walmart Name Brand
Total	$136.82	$139.86	$123.93
33 Items	HyVee Store Brand	Fareway Store Brand	Walmart Store Brand
Total	$116.18	$124.53	$98.9

HyVee is a few dollars cheaper than Fareway.

But WalMart destroys both stores.

 

[GMackey32]

Pissed off employees and bad publicity are going to cost you more money in the long run than the supposed "fraud/theft". The epitome of jumping over dollars to pick up dimes.

 

[aeroclone]

I been reading the ongoing pi****g match about who's store is cheaper. So I decided to give myself an afternoon project and compared prices between HyVee, Fareway and WalMart. All prices are pulled from online shopping at Ames stores and I created a list of 33 standard grocery items (actual found online from another site that did something similar). I found prices for name brand and store versions, where possible, and either used sale prices if all stores were running a sale or took the regular price to normalize between stores. Here are the results.

33 Items	HyVee Name Brand	Fareway Name Brand	Walmart Name Brand
Total	$136.82	$139.86	$123.93
33 Items	HyVee Store Brand	Fareway Store Brand	Walmart Store Brand
Total	$116.18	$124.53	$98.9

HyVee is a few dollars cheaper than Fareway.

But WalMart destroys both stores.

I'm sure there is a savings big enough that I would be willing to shop Walmart. But we aren't there yet and I doubt it ever happens.

Interesting your list had a slight edge to HV. I would have guessed going in a small edge to Fareway. But at the end of the day I think talk of the pricing gap between the two is overplayed, it depends on what you are buying, and for most people they probably aren't too far apart either way.

 

[wenkeej]

I'm sure there is a savings big enough that I would be willing to shop Walmart. But we aren't there yet and I doubt it ever happens.

Interesting your list had a slight edge to HV. I would have guessed going in a small edge to Fareway. But at the end of the day I think talk of the pricing gap between the two is overplayed, it depends on what you are buying, and for most people they probably aren't too far apart either way.

I am sure there are regional differences in pricing (Ames vs WDM vs NE Iowa etc.). It's also about what someone is willing to spend their money on. If a person is will to spend more to go to store A because they have brand loyalty, fair enough. I don't buy Under Armor because I grew up a Michael Jordan Nike kid and Nike's marketing 30 years ago was next level.

I already knew WalMart would run laps around HyVee and Fareway because my wife buys it where it's cheapest. And sometimes that's HyVee, sometimes that's WalMart, and unfortunately for Fareway in Ames it's not really between WalMart/Target and HyVee.

 

[ClonerJams]

I'm sure there is a savings big enough that I would be willing to shop Walmart. But we aren't there yet and I doubt it ever happens.

Interesting your list had a slight edge to HV. I would have guessed going in a small edge to Fareway. But at the end of the day I think talk of the pricing gap between the two is overplayed, it depends on what you are buying, and for most people they probably aren't too far apart either way.

Doing online grocery shopping at Walmart is a gamechanger. Otherwise I would never go to Walmart. Only downside to doing that is produce.

 

[wenkeej]

Doing online grocery shopping at Walmart is a gamechanger. Otherwise I would never go to Walmart. Only downside to doing that is produce.

My wife has done the online grocery shopping a couple times and yeah, the produce thing is really a deal breaker. Produce is the main reason she goes to both HyVee and Walmart in the same trip because it's usually hit or miss as to which one has better produce that day.

 

[cdnlngld]

I been reading the ongoing pi****g match about who's store is cheaper. So I decided to give myself an afternoon project and compared prices between HyVee, Fareway and WalMart. All prices are pulled from online shopping at Ames stores and I created a list of 33 standard grocery items (actual found online from another site that did something similar). I found prices for name brand and store versions, where possible, and either used sale prices if all stores were running a sale or took the regular price to normalize between stores. Here are the results.

33 Items	HyVee Name Brand	Fareway Name Brand	Walmart Name Brand
Total	$136.82	$139.86	$123.93
33 Items	HyVee Store Brand	Fareway Store Brand	Walmart Store Brand
Total	$116.18	$124.53	$98.9

HyVee is a few dollars cheaper than Fareway.

But WalMart destroys both stores.

How does ALDI stack up?

 

[jsb]

I'm sure there is a savings big enough that I would be willing to shop Walmart. But we aren't there yet and I doubt it ever happens.

Interesting your list had a slight edge to HV. I would have guessed going in a small edge to Fareway. But at the end of the day I think talk of the pricing gap between the two is overplayed, it depends on what you are buying, and for most people they probably aren't too far apart either way.

And it sort of depends on what a person likes. Some people like the vast space and choices of HyVee. Some people don't and want a store where they can get in and out. They don't care if they have 10 different choices of canned beans.

 

[Jer]

People overstate or oversimplify things. Typically, my experience for Hy-Vee and Fareway is we spend the same or very little difference either way if we get just what we had on the list.

With that said, we always spend more at Hy-Vee. The reason is because Fareway has what we need but not a lot more that we want. Hy-Vee has a lot more of the wants.

Either way, the meat comes from the same cows and the same butchers - that’s a proven fact by several distributors. The bonus for us is that with Hy-Vee we can get the radiated or alien meat prepackaged so we can eat it when we chose over the next 7-10 days, not just that weekend.

 

[Farnsworth]

The only thing I don't like is they are blaming it on rampant fraud they can't solve, and will reevaluate in the summer.

Part of the issue is its not just hy-vee employees, each employee also got (gets) to share it with another fuel saver account.

Your talking twice the userbase.

Also sounds like it's just an excuse for cost saving.

Just stop letting them share accounts and only use in their general location. But we know how hyvee is with IT lately.

 

[CycloneNorth]

Back in my day we never would have committed fraud. We just thanked management for allowing us to work at such a fine establishment and gave a smile to every customer.

 

[mynameisjonas]

hyvee gets away with gouging people because people keep paying their crazy prices. If people stop paying over $10 for a small bag of green grapes they will eventually lower the prices.

 

[CycloneNorth]

hyvee gets away with gouging people because people keep paying their crazy prices. If people stop paying over $10 for a small bag of green grapes they will eventually lower the prices.

Green grapes are for rich city folk.

 

[Rabbuk]

Back in my day we never would have committed fraud. We just thanked management for allowing us to work at such a fine establishment and gave a smile to every customer.

I just shamelessly steal office supplies and take long poops on company time as God intended.

 

[CloniesForLife]

Used to shop for most everything at Hy-Vee but now do 90% of shopping at Target (cheaper plus 5% off with Red Card). And shop for me at at Hy-Vee as their meat section is much better than Target.

Just a quick Goog of Kroger:

Do Kroger Employees Get Discounts?​

Yes, Kroger offers employee discounts for all its staff. All part-time and full-time associates are eligible for a 10 % discount on groceries.

They also enjoy a 15% discount on home goods from Kroger brand products. The discount goes up to 20% during specific holidays like the 4th of July and Christmas.

I know Target has a pretty decent discount for employees. I think it's like 15% on everything? Plus you get the 5% for the Red Card added on top if you use that. Source: several friends that work there.

 

[dmclone]

We are desperate for news in this state, aren't we? Where are the stories of other employers who reduce/eliminate benefits?

It amazes me how employees think sharing internal content on a public website like Reddit is okay. If Ron Pearson were still in charge, the person who shared the video would be found and fired immediately. He hated leaks within the organization.

If Ron Pearson were still in charge, he would have those stealing from the company fired. I could be wrong but I'm guessing he wouldn't approve of the majority of stuff they are doing. When he was in charge, I don't remember the company ever losing money overall, some stores yes. I don't remember Hy-Vee paying for actors and athletes sponsors. I saw him a few months ago at one of the WDM stores shopping and I wondered what his thoughts would be about this **** show.

If you have time, read this from when RP was in charge. He had a store manager making more money than he made.

Hy-Vee: where managers can earn more than the president. - Free Online Library

Free Online Library: Hy-Vee: where managers can earn more than the president. by "Progressive Grocer"; Business Food and beverage industries Retail industry Supermarkets Management

www.thefreelibrary.com