Iowa

Last edited Wed Dec 17, 2014, 10:46 AM - Edit history (2)

Hy-Priced-Vee recently built a huge store complete with a full service restaurant, car wash, & convenience store. They purchased the most popular businesses/products in town to operate/sell inside their store, purchased exclusive rights to the city's app so they are the only grocery store that can advertise on it, purchased Old Home Bread so now the only place you can buy Old Home Bread in the states of Iowa and Nebraska will be Hy-Priced-Vee. (Coming in April?) One grocery store here closed and a few others are now struggling to the point they might end up closing. This would leave our community with only Walmart and Target options. Five restaurants have also closed since Hy-Vee opened May 1st and we are losing local businesses and dining out variety. Hy-Priced-Vee ads are very misleading. They advertise odd sizes of meat (i.e. 3 oz, 4 oz, & 5 oz) and bundle them by the piece (100 pieces for $100) with a variety of types and cuts so people can't easily do the math off the top of their head. Choice New York Strips were advertised for $6.99 (8 oz. cut) last summer and was strategically placed in one of their many ads (too many ads in my opinion) next to an item they were selling "dirt cheap" with a "coupon limit one" while one of the competitors in town advertised Choice New York Strips at $6.99/lb. It case you didn't notice that makes the Hy-Priced-Vee advertised price $13.98/lb vs. the competitor price of $6.99/lb. That's highway robbery! They lure you in with the cheap "limited quantity" items and charge you double in the meat ads and get away with it because of their squeaky clean image. Sorry! The gas card is a gimmick. Rewards expire after 30 days and they control the products you must purchase. The store I shop at also has a gas card but it is based upon the the total $$$ amount of the items purchased. Hy-Priced-Vee uses their gas card as an incentive to increase traffic on select weekends (labeled "fuel saver weekends&quot to squash the small out of town competition or get rid of excessive inventory. Ever seen one of those penny fuel savers? "But they do good things for the community!" Have you ever experienced "cookie madness" where Hy-Priced-Vee goes into the schools, hospitals, churches, nursing homes, etc, with "free" cookies and milk and give away Hy-Priced-Vee gifts cards saying telling them to pay it forward? They make videos of it and post it on their social media pages. Isn't going into the schools indoctrinating our kids to shop at Hy-Priced-Vee? They'll go home and tell their parents and beg them to shop at Hy-Priced-Vee and eventually become Hy-Priced-Vee shoppers. If Walmart did that the community would complain they are trying to take over the world but because it is Hy-Priced-Vee.....They are doing "good" for the community and advertise as such to brainwash you! Not sure why the state Governor needed to be at our Hy-Priced-Vee stores grand opening! Going into the school with free cookies and milk, they tell you which products to buy (fuel saver), they buy businesses in town to place inside their store limiting your options, they sign exclusive deals or sponsorships which limits the competitions ability to advertise with that entity and direct you into which check stand to go to! When they first come to town they'll cherry pick all of the competitions best employees while they are working, weakening the competition's ability to compete. At Thanksgiving they "ordered too many turkeys" and delivered 50 free turkeys to one of the churches in town and many other charitable organizations. Nice of them however they get a tax break for and that also means there will be 50 less families buying a turkey at Christmas and those 50 families will sit around the dinner table at Christmas/New Years talking about their free turkey from Hy-Priced-Vee while owners of Mom & Pop grocery stores eat Lima beans for the Holidays. I'm a sports fan and Hy-Priced-Vee is the "official grocery sponsor" of the local teams. Nice! The ticket prices in the "Hy-Priced-Vee seating section" have doubled but if you shop at Hy-Priced-Vee you'll be eligible for half-priced tickets in the Hy-Priced-Vee seating area. You might be asking why I'm calling them Hy-Priced-Vee? Besides the obvious, our local Hype-Vee store employees 4 people to monitor the internet with a program that red flags any comment that is made. Hy-Priced-Vee is a privately held company vs Walmart (and others) who are publicly traded. This means Hy-Priced-Vee doesn't have to disclose any financial information or deals to the public. My best friend from High School & college who once worked for Hy-Priced-Vee Corporate told me certain stores will operate at a loss for years in an attempt to close down the competition. Hy-Vee will issue layoffs, keep the best employees, reduce product variety, until the store becomes profitable. A former boss of mine who services the Hy-Priced-Vee stores in Omaha says they are reducing the variety of products he services to "increase profitability." He told them they will become just another grocery store chain if they did that. Sorry. I didn't mean to go on and on here but I am so sick and tired of hearing everyone in our crumbling community talking about the greatness of Hy-Priced-Vee! They received a property tax incentive to come here and we have more empty businesses and limited choices because of them! Just my opinion. Not worth much.