Hy-Vee's weirdest business decision yet?

[ironsam]

Does anyone remember the super crappy/cheap TV commercials Fareway used to run 10+ years ago? Now they have highly polished commercials and marketing (except for their online shopping site/app which are subpar). They've been raising their prices in recent years to be closer to the not-so-good prices of Hy-Vee.

To me it seems that Fareway is trying to become another version of Hy-Vee, at least in price and marketing. Fareway is no longer "Iowa's most economical food stores" in both branding and reality. Hopefully they stay focused on groceries (unlike Hy-Vee) and avoid opening really large stores with less cashiers/service.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Does anyone remember the super crappy/cheap TV commercials Fareway used to run 10+ years ago? Now they have highly polished commercials and marketing (except for their online shopping site/app which are subpar). They've been raising their prices in recent years to be closer to the not-so-good prices of Hy-Vee.

To me it seems that Fareway is trying to become another version of Hy-Vee, at least in price and marketing. Fareway is no longer "Iowa's most economical food stores" in both branding and reality. Hopefully they stay focused on groceries (unlike Hy-Vee) and avoid opening really large stores with less cashiers/service.

I'm fine with Fareway, but by and large in my town at least (Dubuque) I can buy my groceries cheaper at Hy-Vee than Fareway. Not true 5-10 years ago.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I'm fine with Fareway, but by and large in my town at least (Dubuque) I can buy my groceries cheaper at Hy-Vee than Fareway. Not true 5-10 years ago.

Maybe if you are shopping the ad at HyVee but Fareway's everyday shelf price is significantly cheaper than Hyvee.

 

[CloniesForLife]

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.

When I last looked into it for work (manufacturing not retail) there was still some issues with reading things when you had a bunch of stuff packed on to a flat. Wonder if there could be issues reading tons of items in a cart? This was a few years ago though.

Plus a lot of the items probably don't have an RFID so you would have to setup a whole system to scan and add them to incoming products. Between the labor to do that and costs of RFIDs not sure if it would make financial sense.

 

[Sousaclone]

When I last looked into it for work (manufacturing not retail) there was still some issues with reading things when you had a bunch of stuff packed on to a flat. Wonder if there could be issues reading tons of items in a cart? This was a few years ago though.

Plus a lot of the items probably don't have an RFID so you would have to setup a whole system to scan and add them to incoming products. Between the labor to do that and costs of RFIDs not sure if it would make financial sense.

Doesn't Amazon's system just track what you pick up via camera and sort it out that way? Didn't think they had RFID involved.

 

[SCNCY]

Doesn't Amazon's system just track what you pick up via camera and sort it out that way? Didn't think they had RFID involved.

That’s my understanding too. It uses cameras and weights on the shelves to know what you picked up.

 

[CRCy17]

Doesn't Amazon's system just track what you pick up via camera and sort it out that way? Didn't think they had RFID involved.

They have a small version of this at the United Center in Chicago (and would assume other places as well, but this was my experience with this)

It was really nice to just scan my CC as I entered, grabbed the beer(s) and snacks that I wanted, and walked out. The system automatically tracked what I carried out and I was charged accordingly.

I could see this being a different experience for a whole week's grocery trip, but was nice as we entered the building and wanted to grab drinks on the way to our seats.

1800 MARKET​

Our new 1800 Market grab-and-go experience is located in the South Atrium! Insert or tap any credit/debit card to walk in and get snacks, drinks and more. When you’re done, just walk out. 1800 Market is open on event days.

Located via the East Atrium’s South portal or Section 107, 1800 Market is powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, enabling an effortless, convenient and checkout-free retail experience that gets fans back to their seat faster. After guests enter the market with their credit card, the technology detects what they take from or return to the shelves in the store. When guests have completed their shopping experience, they will be able to simply leave the store and their credit card will be charged for the items they left with.

Atrium at the United Center | United Center

www.unitedcenter.com

 

[Trice]

When I last looked into it for work (manufacturing not retail) there was still some issues with reading things when you had a bunch of stuff packed on to a flat. Wonder if there could be issues reading tons of items in a cart? This was a few years ago though.

Plus a lot of the items probably don't have an RFID so you would have to setup a whole system to scan and add them to incoming products. Between the labor to do that and costs of RFIDs not sure if it would make financial sense.

Doesn't Amazon's system just track what you pick up via camera and sort it out that way? Didn't think they had RFID involved.

Sorry for the confusion, I wasn't trying to suggest Amazon was using RFID, or that RFID was the future for cashierless grocery shopping - though perhaps at one time it might have been. Just observing that I am surprised that some sort of cashierless system beyond self-checkout isn't yet universal.

 

[Farnsworth]

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

omg didn't expect to ever see that reference on CF.

let..... me.... take.. a look AT ZE DATAAAA!!!

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

omg didn't expect to ever see that reference on CF.

let..... me.... take.. a look AT ZE DATAAAA!!!

haha and just yelling into the microphone.

I learned more about Algona, IA than anything involving MIS.

 

[Farnsworth]

Doesn't Amazon's system just track what you pick up via camera and sort it out that way? Didn't think they had RFID involved.

To me that seems like the future. Just like physical media going away, why add to the product when tech is getting so good you won't need to.

I forget where I was working at the time but we were a test business for a similar system. We had a little c-store in the building with cameras and all (some weighted shelves too I think) and as long as you had your employee ID on you you just walked in, grabbed what you wanted, and walked out. That's it. Then it'd charge you.

 

[Farnsworth]

haha and just yelling into the microphone.

I learned more about Algona, IA than anything involving MIS.

That class was so easy I only went for the comedy, well and the extra credit and him giving you all the test answers for an easy A. I think he just wanted an audience.

What I remember from the class was he'd talk about his stock picks for about 30 minutes, make fun a few people, then a few slides about something MIS related. It was really more of a finance class about tech stocks than anything for me.

 

[Farnsworth]

Not sure how we're defining "struggling financially" here. In danger of a major business failure or bankruptcy? Almost certainly not. Cash crunched? Perhaps, they've made some moves that suggest they are.

The pandemic was an absolute godsend to the grocery business and the moment things returned to relatively normal conditions, Hy-Vee was in full panic and cost-cutting mode, flailing around even worse than they were before. Something is clearly amiss.

Personally I think that was the issue. With the pandemic everyone went into to panic mode in order to keep business coming in. That's when all of these technologies really blew up which took huge development costs to implement quickly. They had to hire so much for development that now it's not needed, hence major tech layoffs (again my opinion).

Also the easiest one to maintain and regulate, the curbside pickup, seemed to be the major winner coming out of it all. People seem to love that, so all these in store extras really aren't necessary.

Personally I hate going to all self checkout models, it pisses me the **** off. I eat fairly clean and only shop the outside of the store (veggies, meat, etc), so I like going to pick out my own stuff. I freestyle a lot, I find shopping therapeutic (who doesn't want to go shop meat and salivate). And then you get stuck behind all these families with $300 worth of **** scanning slow as ****. If we are going all self checkout, then go back to the old model where you have normal lines, and then express lines for like 20 items.

 

[isuno1fan]

How many people did they layoff last year?

Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s driven by financial problems.

 

[Rabbuk]

Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s driven by financial problems.

Well this certainly is words put together to form a sentence

 

[StormnClone58]

Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s driven by financial problems.

Ahh yes, there he is the ‘just asking questions’ guy

 

[isuno1fan]

They are spending money all over the place. Just because it isn’t to support IT and marketing departments doesn’t mean they are hurting. It’s clear people have some sort of vendetta against them. Likely because of a bad employment experience, but the truth is they continue to be doing quite well. Just because you don’t like how and where they are redirecting their spending doesn’t mean they have cash flow problems.

 

[alarson]

Close but no cigar.

Guessing Tiwana. He was always talking about that kind of stuff. One of my favorite professors, his classes were interesting.

 

[dmclone]

They are spending money all over the place. Just because it isn’t to support IT and marketing departments doesn’t mean they are hurting. It’s clear people have some sort of vendetta against them. Likely because of a bad employment experience, but the truth is they continue to be doing quite well. Just because you don’t like how and where they are redirecting their spending doesn’t mean they have cash flow problems.

While I tend to agree that people usually don't have a clue when it comes to private companies, there are a lot of things happening in the last year that look like they are having financial issues.

Someone on Reddit mentioned their store manager said that last month was the worst financially in company history.

Is Hy-Vee’s highly public corporate restructuring prescient or something else? - RetailWire

Hy-Vee in full-page ads last week in several newspapers announced that it will ask up to 500 corporate-level employees to switch to retail jobs at its 285 stores as it battles macroeconomic pressures. What do you think of Hy-Vee’s decision to publish an advertorial disclosing the details behind...

retailwire.com

The whole CEO debacle

Hy-Vee selling land in 5 metro communities in favor of larger-scale stores

Hy-Vee plans to sell five parcels of land in the Twin Cities metro area because plans for those sites no longer fit its plans for expansion.

kstp.com

 

[isufbcurt]

The hyvee in my small rural town just put in all self checkout. Small rural towns in Iowa are full of older people and they aren’t happy. I’m friends with the fareway store director and he said they’ve never been busier because people don’t want to self checkout a weeks worth of groceries even if they are capable.

The workers at hyvee also hate it because of all the complaints and extra work for them with having to check ids for alcohol and get cigarettes.

It would have made sense to put 1-2 self checkouts because it would be easier for me with a few items but I won’t go in their ti shop for my family anymore.

******* old people, the biggest babies there are.

Scan your items, put your card in and leave. It can't get much easier than that.