HyVee fuel saver card

[DreamyFred21]

I worked at Hy-vee for several years and would definitely never shop there. Prices are OUTRAGEOUS. Fareway, Wal-mart, and Costco will blow them away. Also, someone earlier in the thread said managers were paid on commission and I'm 99% sure that was not true at the Hy-vee I worked at

 

[chuckd4735]

I worked at Hy-vee for several years and would definitely never shop there. Prices are OUTRAGEOUS. Fareway, Wal-mart, and Costco will blow them away. Also, someone earlier in the thread said managers were paid on commission and I'm 99% sure that was not true at the Hy-vee I worked at

The managers bonus on commission. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe Hy-Vee corporate takes 33% of the stores profit, the store director's salary is 33% of the stores profit, and the rest of the managers split the other 34% in the form of bonuses.

Also, the prices are not that bad. Sure Fareway will beat them in alot of things, but Fareway has a different business model (small outdated stores, etc.). I personally think Fareways selection of just about everything sucks, but I will go there for the meat. Wal Mart and Target will beat them when it comes to things like canned goods that are bought at the corporate level from distributors, but Hy-Vee will beat them all when it comes to things that are bought locally from distributors (beer, wine, chips, pop, bread).

We have about 15 things that we buy once a week, every week. We have bought them at every grocery store in Ankeny. It is always cheapest at Hy-Vee. Prices vary, but overall totals are always cheaper at Hy-Vee.

 

[JP4CY]

Sure Fareway will beat them in alot of things, but Fareway has a different business model (small outdated stores, etc.). I personally think Fareways selection of just about everything sucks, but I will go there for the meat.

I hear about Fareway's selection being a problem for a lot of people but I wonder what are the items they are missing? I can understand if it's a specialty foreign sauce or a gluten free/healthy product. We buy pretty basic food items (Bud Light, Ritz, Little Debbies, Ore Ida, Sara Lee bread, Campbells soup, etc) and you can get that at both places.

 

[wxman1]

Down here in Wichita we have Dillions (owned by Kroger) and their program is a flat rate $0.10 per $100. It also gets you discounts on a lot of stuff.

 

[FDWxMan]

My favorite at Hy-Vee is when the pizza (take and bake, or hot) are $0.20 or $0.25 a pop. I can grab one or two for the weekend and it's suddenly $0.50/gal on a ~$20 purchase.

 

[bugs4cy]

Do you ever hit a point where you can't stand having one more dang discount or punch card in your wallet? That's where I'm at with all of this.

If we do buy meat it's from Fareway - the rest lands in our freezer about once a year in the form of a quarter of beef from a locker. We buy very little prepared or processed food items as I'm a from-scratch-cooker. When I did pay attention to the fuel saver items when it was first introduced, it didn't even seem like the discount was applied to the items we tend to buy. Sure, there are a couple things I can't get at HyVee, like Ghirardelli chocolate chips (though I stopped in the Marshalltown HyVee a week ago on my way home from a meeting and they didn't stock them either!). Shopping for us is more about convenience. Which store, HyVee or Fareway, are we driving by? What odd time of the day are we trying to shop?

I do clip coupons - but my rule is that I don't even waste energy unless it's at least for a buck in savings on a product we typically buy. Life is too short to run over a dime to save a penny.

 

[longtimeclone]

Doesnt Weitz build all the Hy-Vee's? At least the used to...

Last I knew it was a joint venture between Weitz and Hy-vee. Most of the employees are Weitz, but it is run by a Hy-Vee employee.

Also, Hy-Vee makes most of their money off the bakery, catering, and food that is made in the store. The margins on actual groceries is pretty small, which is why they have to do it on volume.

 

[00clone]

Last I knew it was a joint venture between Weitz and Hy-vee. Most of the employees are Weitz, but it is run by a Hy-Vee employee.

Also, Hy-Vee makes most of their money off the bakery, catering, and food that is made in the store. The margins on actual groceries is pretty small, which is why they have to do it on volume.

Which is also why the biggest gas discount items are the value added (made in store) items.

 

[ruxCYtable]

Do you ever hit a point where you can't stand having one more dang discount or punch card in your wallet? That's where I'm at with all of this.

I'm kind of at this point. Every place you go has a punch card or rewards card. It's become not even worth the effort to keep track of them all.

 

[iowast8fan]

I figure my savings shopping at fareway/target outweighs the savings on gas

I don't get this. All grocery stores including both Fareway and HyVee send out comparison shoppers to other grocery stores to make sure they are pricing competitively. Do your homework and it doesn't matter where you shop. Fareway accepts HyVee prices and coupons and HyVee accepts Fareway prices and coupons. I've brought a "$5 off a $50 purchase" coupon for Fareway into HyVee and they take it, as well as the other way around. If you try to prove that one is more expensive than the other, you will find items at each store that cost more than the other. So, I disagree that Fareway is necessarily cheaper than HyVee. However, their meat counter usually has better looking meat, and their produce usually has better looking produce.... sometimes.
:smile:

 

[Three4Cy]

Last I knew it was a joint venture between Weitz and Hy-vee. Most of the employees are Weitz, but it is run by a Hy-Vee employee.

Also, Hy-Vee makes most of their money off the bakery, catering, and food that is made in the store. The margins on actual groceries is pretty small, which is why they have to do it on volume.

They are all HyVee employees, when Weitz was purchased by the company from Egypt, HyVee bought out the interest from Weitz.

 

[bugs4cy]

I'm kind of at this point. Every place you go has a punch card or rewards card. It's become not even worth the effort to keep track of them all.

I occasionally run into Walgreens because it's convenient and often their loss-leader sales are pretty good. Boom- now you have to have their rewards card if you want the sale deal. I was in the process of giving the cashier the stinkeye about all of this when she told me that I don't need to carry a card around - just punch my phone number into the machine. WHy can't more stores do this? Cardless is awesome!

 

[CRCy17]

I wish all these stores did it how the grocery store back home in Ohio does it. It's called Giant Eagle. But anywho, for every $50 you spend, you get $0.10 off gas. No matter what you buy. Gift cards you get $0.20 and they have them for everything. Buying Best Buy gift cards before a large purchase was not uncommon. But also the flip side if it. For every 10 gallons of gas you buy, you get 1% off groceries.

It's an awesome program.

I was about to talk about Giant Eagle and glad you mentioned it first. The best I have done (because I usually cash it in before it gets better) was something like $1.50/gallon

 

[cycloneworld]

Shop at the most expensive grocery store around to save money on gas, no thanks Jeff.

Clearly you haven't shopped at Dahls. Hy-Vee prices on steroids.

#2 If you've moved about anywhere in the country one of the things you miss is Hy-Vee. You probably won't admit it but spend a few months shopping at Jewel or Safeway and then get back to me.

Having just moved to Oklahoma, I'd agree with this. The grocery stores here have less of a selection than Fareway at Dahls + 20% prices it seems.

We always shopped at Hy-Vee but got a few things from Target because Target had them for much cheaper.

Wal-mart is almost always the cheapest but I'm convinced it takes a month off our life each shopping event.

 

[Clonefan94]

I'm kind of at this point. Every place you go has a punch card or rewards card. It's become not even worth the effort to keep track of them all.

This is a big part of it with me as well.

 

[CRCy17]

Go try out Giant Eagle if you're in Western PA or Eastern Ohio sometime. It is exactly like Hy-Vee but the prices are better in my opinion. They don't smile as much as Hy-Vee but I can deal with that.

Top 3 grocery stores across the country in my opinion and experience:

1.) Publix (BY A MILE)
2.) Giant Eagle
3.) Hy-Vee

Being in Columbus for 2+ years now, I have liked Giant Eagle because the one right near me is MASSIVE and offers tons of crazy amenities, but it seems more expensive than Kroger (I can't remember Hy-Vee prices to compare to) and there have been a number of times that I can't find items I know exist from my days working at Hy-Vee through high school and college. This could also just be those items are not made/distributed here though.

 

[CYvilEng]

just punch my phone number into the machine. WHy can't more stores do this? Cardless is awesome!

I'm pretty sure this works at hyvee too. Except you tell them your phone number and they put it in.

 

[bugs4cy]

I'm pretty sure this works at hyvee too. Except you tell them your phone number and they put it in.

When I'm at Casey's buying gas it says to run the card - so don't you have to have the card and use it at some point in time?

 

[Farnsworth]

When I'm at Casey's buying gas it says to run the card - so don't you have to have the card and use it at some point in time?

I just keep the card in my glove box for when I fill up on gas. When I'm in the store I just give the cashier my phone number.

I only carry a money clip with like 3 cards, no room for that crap.

 

[Farnsworth]

Pro tip, have others who hardly shop at hyvee use your phone number. My gf, sister, and parents all give them my number when shopping there. They are normally fareway shoppers as my sister used to work there.