Thread regarding Hy-Vee layoffs

The only way you are getting your 7% is by cutting the people who got you where you are today. All that overhead is your 20 year employees who already have given and keep giving. We lost our profit sharing....we stayed. We lost our bonuses...we stayed. We stayed when you cut our full time help over the last 5 years for part time help. We have built this company....So yes we are bitter. Yes we are hurt. We made this our family. We made this our lively hoods. We made this company what it is.

As a store director and 30+ year employee I have failed this company. I need to stop posting on here and find a way to get my store a 7% increase. I’m sorry for these long post on this site.

As a store director and 30+ year employee, I feel the need to respond to some of the thoughts and feelings I’m reading here. If our leaders had never taken chances and tried new ideas, where would Hy-Vee be today? We would not have Healthmarkets, C-Stores, pharmacies, Wine & Spirits, floral, self-checkout, online shopping, and the list goes on. It is through change that we now offer these conveniences to our customers and are a part of a strong company that is able to stay competitive in a fast changing retail environment. The current changes will offer training and improvement in all stores, allowing us the ability to provide the best shopping experience for our customers and to provide the best training for our employees. As our company grows, opportunities for our employees increase. I do not know of any business that has not made changes over the years in order to keep growing and stay relevant. Hy-Vee has always had a vision to keep our stores moving forward and this keeps us in a position to always offer services that guarantee a better customer service experience.

Hy-Vee provides strong work packages for its employees. At our company meetings we always hear about ways to improve what we offer to make it the best place to work such as better vacation packages, flex days, 401K benefits, competitive health insurance, etc. Providing for our employees will always be of the highest importance

I have always felt it is a privilege to work for a company that invests in their communities and neighborhoods. A few of the things that I have had the honor to be involved in through Hy-Vee are Variety, the Children's Charity, JDRF, Hy-Vee Homefront, and Honor Flight. Hy-Vee's "One Step" program, which takes health and wellness one step further by funding projects locally and worldwide to help people lead healthier lives is another example of Hy-Vee’s commitment to our communities and the world we live in. This alone tells you what kind of company Hy-Vee is.

There always has been and always will be changes. Without it we would fall behind in the current retail world. No change is ever easy and can be unnerving and very difficult. I am proud to be a part of a company that is willing to stay relevant and competitive. I have confidence in our leaders making these tough decisions to keep Hy-Vee strong for decades to come.

Hy-Vee is in this bad spot because of terrible store directors. If they would just try to make new programs work this wouldn’t happen. Come on store Directors stop crying about market grills. Those would work if you would just promote them. I agree Hy-Vee needs to revamp their store director training program. Stop sending people that won’t be good store directors just to Have a class to fill.

Names are not allowed here. Check the site rules.

Good new Hyvee family. Hyvee is changing the service awards this year. If you can make it to 20 years of service they will give you one million dollars. Bad news is Hyvee is going to find a way to fire anyone with more than 19 years of service. Helpful frown in every aisle.

People are being terminated with no forewarning and no severance. You're telling me a company with 10B annual revenue can't give any form of severance? Don't ask for loyalty when the company has none for its employees. Treating people as disposable is why we have a socialist about to be a legitimate presidential contender as sad as that is. Your 'all for the company' BS is just that, and morale is shattered. Good luck keeping anyone worth a damn. They are applying elsewhere.

Lets take a vote if Randy needs to retire. Just comment yea for retirement or nay for him to continue being the CEO.

I agree that change is good for any company to stay to relevant and competitive. I love the new ideas and changes in companies to improve their brand. As a CEO Randy has made some over the top changes that are not working. With new ideas you need to make calculated changes. You need to weigh the risk vs reward. He is a leader with knee jerk reaction. It’s time for a change at the helm. As a leader it’s hard to accept that you have failed. We still have time to make HyVee great again. Change out the CEO and have them fix this company.

They could try to slow down on all of their projects. Everyone is afraid to put Randy on a budget with his grand ideas. Not an option if you want to keep your job. They are going to attack the employees hard earned wages before they stop or slow down on building. Looks like it’s only a matter of time until banks stop lending money to HyVee. HyVee needs a CEO with some logical thinking. If Randy is willing to take money from employee pocket there is not question he will do whatever it’s takes to keep the money flowing for his next r—ded idea.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but with the high prices and frivolous store amenities like full-service alcohol bars, Hy-Vee will be complete toast in the next recession. I hope there is a plan for that other than taking it out on the employees.

C-suits are public figures, but don’t post any other names here, mods will probably nuke the post (anonymous forum).

Their she be all aboard:

https://www.imcdb.org/v082757.html

I believe randy is driving the short school bus off a cliff. Save yourself or go down with Randy’s bus.

At our "meeting" we were told that everything we did yesterday was...yesterday. This is the new way. That this was the way the bus was going. Those who wish to stay on the bus will "work" through this. And those that don't will most likely be replaced. And within a short time we will already know who is on board....and who is not.
So yea...everyone is in fear of their jobs/ lively hood....no one is safe.

Did everyone get that email from Randy telling you to stop talking about this online. That if you have a issue with him or Hy-Vee to follow the chain of command or contact him directly. Like any of us are going to contact randy to complain. Sure way for him to fire us.

Hy-Vee is getting their finances in order for the sale of Hyvee. Heard that all the stock holders will make millions in this deal. Sales is coming soon. Amazon? Kroger or someone else.

Hy-Vee has gained a reputation for being overpriced. If you bring up grocery shopping as a topic, and mention Hy-Vee, you will quickly be chastised for shopping there when Walmart and Aldi are so much cheaper. It's almost like people think they are doing a public service by trashing Hy-Vee, that's how strong the sentiment is.

I don't know about their online shopping, restaurants, clothes or whatever else they are pushing but they're at risk for losing their core customer base because of high prices. Once those customers are gone it's going to be very hard to win them back. Seems foolish to me.

To all of you Aldi, Fareway and Walmart fans; have you ever talked with previous employees of those organizations? I can tell you that you will hear very similar, if not worse stories.

Amazing how many employees at an "Employee Owned" company have no say or any clue to what's going on.

I would like to hear how the new store managers feel about the new changes. Do you feel this will help Hyvee future? Are you okay with the new pay cuts. Will your spouse have to go back into the work force due to the new pay cut? Do you feel these new program will make stronger store directors? Or do you feel like this is the last straw with Hy-Vee and will be looking for new jobs outside of Hy-Vee?

Can we all agree that if all these people have to go on a website like this to found out what is happening at hyvee, there may be a communication problem with the leadership team.
This isn't the way to run a positive, successful company at the very least.

The ensuing sh*t storm has just begun. Wait till this week when the layoffs actually start and many Dept. Manager positions get eliminated. Total it will be several thousand full time employees thru the company.

Also they are changing the title from director to store managers in 3 waves. One year from now they won’t be called store directors anymore. No more commission base salaries. Some will say this isn’t true but next year at this time come back to this post. You heard it here first. God bless

Heard from a reliable source this is the just the Beginning of the salary cuts. Heard dept Mgr will be the next round for salary cut. Also heard manager of teams will no long have 5 or 6 for large stores. They will be cut down to 2 or 3 manager of per store. Smaller store formats will only have store manager and assistant store manger. Hr manager are getting cut also. They will just have an area hr manager for store just like district directors.

As a 7 year lower level employee of hyvee , I am not in the "know". Having said that I have been in the Grocery business for 30+ years and have a few observations...
Somebody made a bad choice when deciding to open Market Grille at all stores
Somebody made a bad choice in ordering/force shipping Grills,Lawn chairs,toys etc.
Somebody made a bad choice in promoting store directors who were basically a$$ kissers and not ready (if ever) for being a store director (old boys club, just look at the wall of fame for top execs, white aging men- no diversity, very few females, etc
Somebody has made a bad choice by deleting frozen, dairy and salad bar mgrs
Somebody has made a bad choice by demoting 84+ store directors (who, at the very least were the most loyal people this company has , if not some talented enough to be store directors in the first place)
I could go on.. but the point is somebody else needs to redirect this ship before it sinks. And it will sink. One more parting shot, Good customer service is not running the front end with zero help and having to call 8 associates up to bag or cashier. Nor is having the cart lobby empty every time it gets busy and having to call 8 associates to haul in carts. That's not how it's done kids!

Companies number one greatest assets is the employees. Take care of the employees and they will take care of your business like they own it.

I would assume you didn’t get demoted to store manager. How would you feel if you took a 45% percent pay cut? Would you still be singing the same tune? Don’t worry when Hyvee comes for your pay check you will just say it’s what’s best for Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee needs to make calculated moves to stay relevant in this retail ice age. Build more money losing fulfillment centers. Build more market grills. Sale more F&F / Joe fresh. I get testing new market ideas but if they don’t work out at the first ten store. Don’t roll out the new idea at all the store. Those are costly mistakes RE is willing to do.

Reading thru these comments as a current store director I feel some perspective needs to be shared. I will tell you that the company is as strong as it has ever been in its 90 year history. I believe many of these comments are the vocal minority. I love Hy-Vee along with the vast majority of our employees who I work with every day. Our results over the last five years have been fantastic especially comparing them to any of our peers in the industry. Senior leadership mentoring less seasoned leaders (what this is) is very common throughout the business world and beyond. It’s a good thing designed to help employees meet their goals, and for our company to continue to grow and prosper!

The Hy-Vee fundamentals I was raised on and that our company was founded on are talked about at every meeting, and it is something we are focused on with our customers and in our stores every day. As many of our retail peers have faltered and closed in the “retail ice age”, we have been successfully navigating a rapidly changing retail evolution for some time now, all while expanding and growing the company. I will tell you that every day, all the decisions our company makes are focused on improving our customers experience. Sometimes you take chances on a number of different ideas to make sure you stay relevant for the future (some stick, some don’t). A sign of a growing and healthy company is one that continues to evolve with new ideas and offerings to meet an ever changing customer lifestyle. I am very confident with the plan laid out by our leadership, along with the store directors to continue to be relevant and successful for another 90 years.

These are hard times for everyone. Store directors Feed their employees sh– and tell them it’s in Hy-Vee’s best interest and thank you for understanding. Now it’s the store directors turn to eat sh–. Hope all you directors understand this is whats best for the company. Don’t sweat over a pay cut. You should be thankful that you have a job. If Randy did Truly care about Hyvee future as much as he says. He would take a pay cut. If I was Randy I would put my mouth where my money is. Director vs RE.

But if the profitability of a store can be affected by raising warehouse prices, can't they rig potential employee store profit by pushing more loss on the stores via price raises? That makes it a misleading metric. Thanks for answering BTW.

I respect everyone’s opinion and a healthy and informed dialogue is always welcome in my book. I am a current employee of Hy-Vee. As someone who has a direct vantage point of “the inside” during this Hy-Vee evolution, I know that our leaders do not take any of these decisions lightly. Our industry is ever-changing, more rapidly than it ever has. All of the decisions and moves currently happening are a tough necessity to guarantee a strong future for the company and our customers.

One of my favorite parts about working for Hy-Vee is how customers - friends, family and even strangers - describe their stores as “my Hy-Vee.” That, along with the knowledge that our leadership has a strong desire to innovate and evolve, is why I am proud to be a Helpful Smile.

About why stores/warehouse separate entities: Employees at store receive quarterly bonuses if the store is profitable. In many stores, for many years, this was at least equal to a weeks pay. That's a lot of money. Also, the store director of profitable stores were strictly on commission. Some were making multiple hundreds of thousands per year. This was until within the last year and actually just ended completely with some of the forced retirings. HyVee stock is only available to Store Directors or higher. The directors would use their high salary to purchase as much stock as possible. So getting profit out of the stores benefits the company as a whole, short term, by keeping more of the profit, but damages it long term by making it a much less attractive place to work. It definitely was a flawed system. But not so flawed to excuse or cause the actions RE has taken.

Why would the warehouses and stores be treated as separate financial entities? What is the advantage?

Hy-Vee warehouse has posted record profits. How do they make record profits when store sales are down? They raise the price that the store must pay because they can’t buy grocery from outside warehouses. Plus when the warehouse has overstock on products like bad general merchandise buys they force ship them the bad product and invoice them full price. The warehouse has a business model that can’t fail. They have a guarantee customer that can’t shop anywhere else.

A well informed employee states that with these layoffs all the directors that were grandfathered in the old commusion system are now gone. Those stockholders with large chunks of votes are mostly gone as well with voting rights now being more widespread it's less easy to just vote RE to the curb because a larger number of people would have to agree.

Know who your competitors are. It's brick and mortar grocery stores, not online behemoths like Amazon. HyVee has always made their point of difference the shopping experience. It's their service and the visual array, whether seafood, bakery, floral, or food depts standing out. Online shopping takes all of that away. Online shopping is only about price and convenience. Why spend and lose tens of millions building a fulfillment center in KC for online shopping to just cannibalize instore sales? I've wondered if that just shifts profit to the warehouse and/or to HyVee Construction which allows HyVee not to have to pay as much in store bonuses or director bonuses. I dont think that's the case, that seems too conspiracy minded. I think chasing the online biz was just fear based and poorly considered. If anyone else knows if the warehouse is a profit center r is run at break even I'd like to hear.

Really ,,? As a 30 year employee who has had 4 of the 5 CEOs , holy c-ap .... embarrassed would be an understatement. Please Ron and Rick come back and help us revive Dwight's legacy ,, and our company . We deserve better... ..sad days for us old timers

I have something special coming people going to post it on liveleak.com

stay tuned

Its 2020, Randy is a joke, I know plenty of other HyVee Employees with a real education and sense of reality in the business world that could make this company prosper.

And to this persons aforementioned comment below , its only the beginning!

How many employees does Hyvee have? 85,000...

And how many views on this thread (5,000)...

This anger is out of hand.