Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?

dmclone

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I worked at Hy-Vee when I was a kid and they didn't have a discount then.
I think this discount started in 2019. The only discount I got was when I was working night stock and they'd give us the leftover pizza. They actually had some decent pizza back in the day.
 

3TrueFans

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We used it a few times, most times nobody in the store knew what it was or how it worked.

The scan and go at Sam's Club is perfect on the other hand, can't imagine going through a check out line there.
 

3TrueFans

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I'm fine with the self check but I found this Scan N Go to be kind of dumb. I remember going to a store somewhere in Europe where they had something like this but it was an actual scanning device instead of using your own phone. With this Scan N Go it's pick up item, scan item, put in cart. Then walk around a while, pick up another item, pull your phone out, hope it unlocks, hope the app hasn't closed, scan item, put in cart. Repeat 50 times. I don't think a lot of people used it.
Never has anyone made "get your phone out" sound so complicated and cumbersome.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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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 ItemsHyVee Name BrandFareway Name BrandWalmart Name Brand
Total$136.82$139.86$123.93
33 ItemsHyVee Store BrandFareway Store BrandWalmart Store Brand
Total$116.18$124.53$98.9

HyVee is a few dollars cheaper than Fareway.

But WalMart destroys both stores.

The HyVee house brand items blow Fareway and Wal Mart out of the water as far as quality goes. The Great Choice brand is REALLY hit and miss.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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I think this discount started in 2019. The only discount I got was when I was working night stock and they'd give us the leftover pizza. They actually had some decent pizza back in the day.

The HyVee I worked at offered like a $3.50 lunch form the deli that usually entailed a main dish, two sides, and a drink. I would wreck that meal every shift I worked.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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Randy Edeker may be one of the worst executives in the history of central Iowa...

He was handed a golden goose and turned it into burnt toast

He promised not to make any changes to their big supplier appreciation golf tournament too but guess what went away after Covid?
 
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JP4CY

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We used it a few times, most times nobody in the store knew what it was or how it worked.

The scan and go at Sam's Club is perfect on the other hand, can't imagine going through a check out line there.
I'm always blown away at the # of people at Sams waiting in line at the checkout with phone in hand. I just want to scream at them to download the app but whatevs.
 

Trice

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Years ago an expert on RFID technology predicted to me that thanks to RFID tags, someday we'd all just load items into our carts and walk out, getting charged for the contents of the cart without going through a checkout process. That was probably 2005-ish and it's kind of surprising to think we aren't there yet, even with some other form of technology. Amazon has some cashierless grocery stores and I think they license their technology, but AFAIK it hasn't caught on (yet) in any big way.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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Years ago an expert on RFID technology predicted to me that thanks to RFID tags, someday we'd all just load items into our carts and walk out, getting charged for the contents of the cart without going through a checkout process. That was probably 2005-ish and it's kind of surprising to think we aren't there yet, even with some other form of technology. Amazon has some cashierless grocery stores and I think they license their technology, but AFAIK it hasn't caught on (yet) in any big way.

This has Fred Choobineh's finger prints all over it.
 

Chitowncy

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That's awful.
Here in Ames, if you use the ordering systems, Walmart actually gets the right items and communicates if they have to sub. Then they check in with you to make sure. With Hy-Vee, it's a crapshoot what happens with online orders.
Truth. Have personally experienced this many times.
 

Cyinthenorth

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The HyVee I worked at offered like a $3.50 lunch form the deli that usually entailed a main dish, two sides, and a drink. I would wreck that meal every shift I worked.
They still did this as recently as 2018, when I stepped away. Started in 2006 and it was the same meal you describe for $5, and when I left in 2018, it was reduced to 20% off a Market Grill or Chinese/Deli/Italian Express meal. A huge ripoff compared to what I had been buttered up to enjoy over the years. A year later I heard the store I retired from had gone back to $5 employee meals and now everyone receives a 10% discount, available anytime on anything aside from Alcohol/Lottery/Tobacco etc. Idk if it would ever be enough to lure me back to working those shite hours though.
 

Trice

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You know what I'd like to see Hy-Vee do? Have more sales, specials, and ad inserts. Because when I visit their web site or app or check my email inbox (and occasionally my real mailbox), there just aren't enough sales going on at any one time. It's way too easy to figure out if what I want to buy is on sale at that particular moment.
 
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Gunnerclone

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We have 10,000 employees. We found 5 that took advantage of the employee discount in a way we felt empowered to share to the world and/or all employees, as a reason to cancel the discount problem for everyone. Very small minded.

Rework the solution, because you see a problem, and announce the new program and its effective date. To announce its canceled company wide, and we will at a future date get a replacement tells me a different story than one of employee abuse.

This reeks of meeting shareholder expectations by hurting morale.

That’s a straight chop to burn. Shareholders and execs love it.
 

dmclone

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Never has anyone made "get your phone out" sound so complicated and cumbersome.
My bad, I forget that for some people it's a lot easier
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