Hy-Vee has long had a reputation as an innovative grocery company. In recent years, the Midwest chain has experimented with a variety of store formats beyond its supermarkets, including a discount store, wine and spirits shop, and a health-focused market.
The chain’s emphasis on concepts beyond its full-size grocery stores has come at a time when other grocers and retailers have explored alternative formats as ways to better meet consumer needs. Some — like Publix’s GreenWise and Schnuck Markets’ EatWell — haven’t succeeded while others, like Whole Food Market’s Daily Shop concept and Meijer Grocery, are still in the early stages.
Hy-Vee has had its own ups and downs with its alternative stores. Its Fast & Fresh format has exploded, with its store count growing roughly 135% in less than three years. Its HealthMarket concept, however, didn’t take off after an initial trial.
Hy-Vee has also made a recent digital push into new formats, including a pet products site and a telehealth and prescription delivery service. At the start of 2022, the grocer announced the launch of WholeLotta Good, a ship-to-home site selling items like vitamins, health food and beauty products to the contiguous 48 states.
Here’s a look at how Hy-Vee is managing its various store formats.
Fast & Fresh
Number of locations: 190
Hy-Vee’s Fast & Fresh is a convenience store chain focused on fresh foods and ready-to-eat meals. The grocer launched standalone Fast & Fresh stores in 2018 and then worked to switch its convenience stores to the modernized format.
“What makes Hy-Vee’s Fast & Fresh concept unique is that it marries together convenience with fresh offerings and a focus on service,” Dawn E. Buzynski, Hy-Vee’s assistant vice president of communications, wrote in an email. “Customers enjoy that our locations have a bright and welcoming appearance which doesn’t look like a typical convenience store.”
Last fall, Hy-Vee debuted its latest standalone Fast & Fresh in Davenport, Iowa.
Fast & Fresh’s store count totals 190, with 21 standalone locations and 169 adjacent to a Hy-Vee food store, Buzynski said.
“We continue to see increased traffic as these locations fulfill a need with our customers as a one-stop shop to fuel up, pick up fresh grocery items, and either a hot meal or something to take home for the entire family,” Buzynski said.
Fast & Fresh’s new mobile app aims to help make meal purchases more convenient, Buzynski said, noting that app users can order ahead and have meals delivered to their vehicles as well as check daily fuel prices and receive exclusive deals and savings.
Dollar Fresh Market
Number of locations: 25
Hy-Vee is taking on dollar stores with its Dollar Fresh Market in rural markets.
“We chose the name Dollar Fresh, and we wanted to focus more on fresh because we think that’s where [discounters] are weakest,” then-CEO Randy Edeker told Grocery Dive in 2021.
Since Dollar Fresh’s launch in fall 2018, discounters have become an even bigger threat to grocery companies with their expanded food assortments and emphasis on low prices. In early 2020, Hy-Vee announced it would acquire six former Shopko locations in Iowa and re-open them under the Dollar Fresh brand later that year.
Fourteen Dollar Fresh stores are located in Iowa. The format has six locations in Nebraska, two in South Dakota and one each in Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri, according to Hy-Vee’s website.
HealthMarket
Number of locations: 0
Hy-Vee opened its first standalone HealthMarket store in West Des Moines, Iowa, in 2018. The 15,700-square-foot location was three times larger than the grocer’s in-store HealthMarket sections.
Edeker told the Des Moines Register in 2018 that Hy-Vee planned on opening 50 or 60 HealthMarket locations. But three years later, Hy-Vee decided to close that store and replace it with one of its Wall to Wall Wine and Spirits locations.
The future of the HealthMarket concept remains unclear. Hy-Vee does not currently list any HealthMarket locations on its website.
Fourth + Court
Number of locations: 1
Hy-Vee debuted its urban concept called Fourth + Court in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, in 2017 and used it as a test location for many Hy-Vee offerings. A few years later, Hy-Vee said it planned to convert the store to its HealthMarket format, but told the Des Moines Register in 2023 that it had paused plans to make those changes.
“Based on feedback from customers living in the downtown Des Moines area, this location remains a Hy-Vee grocery store,” Buzynski said.
The location has struggled with crime, and in February, Hy-Vee abruptly cut store hours, telling Axios that theft and loitering have plagued the location, with police receiving more than 200 calls in a six-month span.
Wall to Wall Wine and Spirits
Number of locations: 4
Hy-Vee announced in 2021 that it would open a new alcohol-focused store format called Wall to Wall Wine and Spirits, beginning with four locations across Iowa and Nebraska.
The grocer has accomplished what it set out to do, with three stores open in Nebraska and one in Iowa. The stores feature a wide selection of wine, spirits, beer and seltzer and offer a free rewards program so shoppers can earn points when they shop.
“The Wall to Wall Wine and Spirits concept has been successful in its current markets, and we plan to expand this division of our company in the future,” Buzynski wrote.
