Hy-Vee was a special company because the corporate office supported the stores. Now the corporate office runs the stores. I notice that it looks like even pricing is being governed in WDM.
It does not look like store management has creative autonomy any longer. Sure they can blame changing habits, on-line, competition etc... But the fact is many traditional stores are still doing extremely well.
Hy-Vee made a lot of bad decisions in last 20 years. They started making people sell their stock sooner. They started hacking away at manager commissions, the lifeblood incentive for hardworking talent was removed and a lot of talented people left Hy-Vee.
The centralization of too many fresh departments.. stopping in-store preparation. Di-Lusso sandwiches are gross. The fried chicken is gross. Ground beef in plastic tubes. I cannot believe that the C-Suite at Hy-Vee has not been flushed...
The reason is because their board is full of just them. They need to get back to 40K square foot stores with real fresh departments and service. Hy-Vee will never be Wal-Mart...
So, stop trying.