Happy Trails

Hy-Vee Inc. aims to be an integral part of a growing community just north of Iowa’s capital city, and that new store itself is just one element of the Midwestern grocer’s ambitious growth plans for the coming year.

At 93,000 square feet Hy-Vee’s new Ankeny store is located in the Prairie Trail planned community, a 1100-acre development that includes a mix of residential, commercial and retail properties as well as parks and other recreational facilities. The Prairie Trail Hy-Vee — the grocer’s second store in Ankeny — represents an $18 million investment in the local economy and the addition of more than 600 jobs, making it the company’s largest store in terms of employment. In addition, this store is part of a multimillion-dollar construction plan currently under way (see sidebar on page 32).

“We are always looking for opportunities to reach more customers within our eight-state market area,” says Randy Edeker, Hy-Vee’s chairman, CEO and president. “Our new Ankeny store is part of a planned development on the south side of this growing community, and it’s a great complement to the very successful store we have on the north side of town. It’s one of three new locations we opened in 2013, with four more new stores slated to open in 2014.”

The store is built around Hy-Vee’s three operating priorities: customer service and experience, health and wellness, and culinary expertise, explains Kevin Hudachek, Prairie Trail Hy-Vee store director. “From our full-service Market Grille restaurant to our large HealthMarket department to our full-time chefs,” he says, “customers are discovering products and services they never dreamed they’d find in a supermarket.”

Many Moving Parts

Store planners at Hy-Vee hope that shoppers embrace the new market despite its large size and expansive feel.

“The thing customers are going to notice as soon as they walk in the door,” says Jeff Markey, Hy-Vee’s VP of store development, “is that even though this is a large store with lots of open space, it’s built on a very friendly scale and has a warm, welcoming feel to it.”

At the Prairie Trail Hy-Vee, the emphasis is on culinary expertise and a whole-health approach to providing products and services for today’s lifestyles.

The new Market Grille restaurant and café is a full-service dining experience that offers customers the option of ordering from a menu and enjoying wine or beer with their meals. Other attractions that ought to appeal to foodies include a sushi bar, woodfired pizza, artisan breads, patisserie desserts, specialty cheeses, a salsa and hummus bar, bulk foods, and take-home entrées created by the store’s own staff of six professional chefs.

HealthMarket, the store’s wellnesscentric department, offers thousands of natural and organic products as well as foods for those with specific dietary needs. The store’s two staff dietitians collaborate with pharmacists to focus on the health-and-wellness needs of customers.

Other specialty departments are devoted to categories such as wine and spirits, housewares, cosmetics, pet supplies, and candy.

Hudachek says one of the biggest challenges of running a store with so many focuses is that there are so many moving parts. “The store director can’t be everywhere at once, so you really have to trust your assistants and your department managers, and make sure everyone is on the same page,” he says. “Because we’re a brand-new store, every one of our customers is a former customer of some other store. They might come in just to see what’s new and check out the store, but our challenge is to persuade them to change their shopping habits and become regular customers of our store.”

Of course, it helps that Hudachek is working with a team that’s well versed in launching new stores, from design and construction to grand openings.

“We had a group of Hy-Vee supervisors working side by side with our employees for weeks to help us get ready for opening day, so we knew everything would be perfect when that first customer walked through the door,” he says. “What has been rewarding to me is the fact our team has been able to maintain that grand-opening look day in and day out. We set expectations on how every department would look and operate, and our employees have met and exceeded those expectations.”

Value Opportunity

The store is already earning rave reviews on social media, garnering a 4½-star (out of five) rating by visitors to its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AnkenyPrairieTrailHyVee).

Glowing praise has come in Facebook posts from folks like a mom sharing a snapshot of the cute Barbie birthday cake prepared for her daughter by the store’s bakery, a local business raving about a Tanksgiving dinner catered by the store, and a shopper expressing heartfelt thanks to a manager who tracked down a special holiday ingredient.

Hy-Vee sees the Prairie Trail store as presenting an opportunity for the grocer to expand its offerings and make more diverse products available to its shoppers.

“This format allows us the space to test and try new product lines and new display concepts,” says Karl Kruse, VP of procurement. “It demonstrates to our suppliers that we are committed to creating the most exciting, up-to-date shopping experience in every market, and lets them know that we value the opportunity to be first to market on their newest and most innovative items. However, our overall expectation of our suppliers is the same in this format as it is for all stores: to provide our customers with the variety and value they expect to find at Hy-Vee.”

In the weeks since the gala grand opening, Hudachek says he was most struck by how vital it is to assemble the right team to make a store like this one work.

“We were fortunate to have some very experienced Hy-Vee employees from other stores apply for positions here, and we were able to hire new crew members who were ready and eager to learn,” he says. “I am so proud of the way this team has come together to offer fantastic service right from the outset. You would never know from the way our employees take care of customers that this is a brand-new store.”

“Every one of our customers is a former customer of some other store. Our challenge is to persuade them to change their shopping habits and become regular customers of our store.” –Kevin Hudachek, store director