If Hy-Vee has a corporate heart, you’ll find it in the frozen foods section. Somewhere between the fish sticks and Tater Tots.
Coldhearted is a good way to describe the grocery chain’s announcement it will be closing its store on First Avenue in Cedar Rapids’ core, serving the Wellington Heights and Mound View neighborhoods. The doors will close for good on June 23.
But fear not. Hy-Vee communications VP Tina Potthoff said people in those neighborhoods can still order groceries online and have them delivered. All they need to do is make a minimum of order of $24.95 and fork over a delivery charge of $9.95.
Hy-Vee’s belief everyone in these generally low-income neighborhoods can whip out their laptops and credit cards to spend $35 shows how out of touch the company has become. So far out of touch this weak response sounds like it’s being beamed from another planet.
This is no ordinary Hy-Vee store. In 2002, the city offered the company $915,000 to help buy the land, tear down an older, smaller store and build a new one. The grocery store was seen as a linchpin in efforts to stabilize and revitalize the neighborhoods.
Yes, Hy-Vee is in the business of making profits, with 285 stores in eight states and $13 billion in annual sales, according to its website. The First Avenue store has been missing sales goals. But how much is community good will and the company’s reputation worth? Both are now damaged.
“The grocery business is a hard business, we get that,” said City Council member Dale Todd in an email Friday morning. Todd was a key player in getting the store built in 2002.
“But it takes two willing partners to make a development deal happen. At the city we have tools and the willingness to find a way to make things happen. Regretfully Hy-Vee appears to not be interested and instead talks to us through their lobbyist and corporate communications spokesperson. “
Congratulations, Hy-Vee executives. You’ve created a food desert in Iowa’s second-largest city. Instead of a helpful smile, residents who depended on having a store close by are getting a cold shrug.
A food desert is an area where people face barriers to buying healthy food. Barriers like access to transportation. Food deserts in rural areas have gotten a lot of attention in Iowa. But in urban areas there also are grocery gaps hampering access to good food, not to mention access to prescription drugs. It’s all bad news for folks without reliable transportation.
The nearest full-service grocery store to the existing Hy-Vee site is the Hy-Vee on Oakland Road, which is 1.8 miles away, according to Google. That’s a 40-minute walk one way.
The Fareway store on First Avenue is 2.4 miles away, or a 53-minute walk. Then there’s the Aldi on Collins which is 3.6 miles away and would take more than an hour to reach on foot.
There is public bus service. But lining up your grocery buying time with bus schedules can be a challenge. Maybe a friend can give you a lift, or maybe not. Other local programs are working to fill transportation needs, which is great.
But the more you complicate a trip to the store, the more likely it is residents will fill the gap with food purchased at convenience stores. Unhealthy foods exacerbate health problems already plaguing lowans — obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other ailments. Also, convenience foods often cost more.
Grocery chains prefer to put stores in more affluent areas, compounding a history of housing redlining, discrimination and structural inequality in neighborhoods they abandon. As Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said Thursday, the affected neighborhoods have been improving, thanks, in part, to public investments. Losing the store is clearly a setback.
Todd said in May 2023, a Hy-Vee regional manager informed the city the store would close.
“The mayor, city manager and I basically said no way in hell,” Todd said.
The lease on the land was set to expire and, at some point, the land had been sold.
“The fact that somewhere along the line they had sold the land was news to us, so we tracked down the owners and stressed to them the importance of this store and they soon informed us that a new lease had been signed for a five-year term,” Todd said. “Anything Hy-Vee says today to the contrary is gobbledygook.
“The way Hy-Vee announced their decision was purposeful and done in a manner that puts the city at a disadvantage. It was a betrayal of trust and a mutual working relationship that I thought we had developed throughout the years. To simply suggest that current shoppers can walk to other stores is a callous disregard of reality. This is a stain on their brand and on those that made this decision,” Todd said.
So, what now? It will take considerable work to replant the food desert. It’s likely government investments will be needed again.
The state could help. Rep. Brian Lohse, R-Bondurant, filed legislation this year that would have set up a $2 million fund to help pay for grocery store projects in underserved communities. It passed a House committee but died without further action.
Local stakeholders can be recruited. Plans must be made, and partnerships formed. It’s a difficult situation, but not hopeless.
Waterloo is a good example of what can be done. Hy-Vee also announced it is closing a Waterloo store next month. But the good news is All-In Grocery, a community-supported store, is open. It took seven years for city leaders and residents of the Walnut neighborhood to make it happen.
All-In is more than a grocery store. It offers after-school programs through the 1619 Freedom School, a community center and a reentry program for residents who have been incarcerated, according to Iowa Public Radio.
“We shouldn’t have to have a celebration for the opening of a grocery store in our own community,” said Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Waterloo native and Pulitzer Price-winning founder of the 1619 project. “It just shows that we have so many obstacles to overcome for things that other communities can do normally.”
We also shouldn’t have to have a wake for the loss of a grocery store. A city that overcame floods and a derecho can surely figure out a way to put healthy food back on the table.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
www.thegazette.com
Coldhearted is a good way to describe the grocery chain’s announcement it will be closing its store on First Avenue in Cedar Rapids’ core, serving the Wellington Heights and Mound View neighborhoods. The doors will close for good on June 23.
But fear not. Hy-Vee communications VP Tina Potthoff said people in those neighborhoods can still order groceries online and have them delivered. All they need to do is make a minimum of order of $24.95 and fork over a delivery charge of $9.95.
Hy-Vee’s belief everyone in these generally low-income neighborhoods can whip out their laptops and credit cards to spend $35 shows how out of touch the company has become. So far out of touch this weak response sounds like it’s being beamed from another planet.
This is no ordinary Hy-Vee store. In 2002, the city offered the company $915,000 to help buy the land, tear down an older, smaller store and build a new one. The grocery store was seen as a linchpin in efforts to stabilize and revitalize the neighborhoods.
Yes, Hy-Vee is in the business of making profits, with 285 stores in eight states and $13 billion in annual sales, according to its website. The First Avenue store has been missing sales goals. But how much is community good will and the company’s reputation worth? Both are now damaged.
“The grocery business is a hard business, we get that,” said City Council member Dale Todd in an email Friday morning. Todd was a key player in getting the store built in 2002.
“But it takes two willing partners to make a development deal happen. At the city we have tools and the willingness to find a way to make things happen. Regretfully Hy-Vee appears to not be interested and instead talks to us through their lobbyist and corporate communications spokesperson. “
Congratulations, Hy-Vee executives. You’ve created a food desert in Iowa’s second-largest city. Instead of a helpful smile, residents who depended on having a store close by are getting a cold shrug.
A food desert is an area where people face barriers to buying healthy food. Barriers like access to transportation. Food deserts in rural areas have gotten a lot of attention in Iowa. But in urban areas there also are grocery gaps hampering access to good food, not to mention access to prescription drugs. It’s all bad news for folks without reliable transportation.
The nearest full-service grocery store to the existing Hy-Vee site is the Hy-Vee on Oakland Road, which is 1.8 miles away, according to Google. That’s a 40-minute walk one way.
The Fareway store on First Avenue is 2.4 miles away, or a 53-minute walk. Then there’s the Aldi on Collins which is 3.6 miles away and would take more than an hour to reach on foot.
There is public bus service. But lining up your grocery buying time with bus schedules can be a challenge. Maybe a friend can give you a lift, or maybe not. Other local programs are working to fill transportation needs, which is great.
But the more you complicate a trip to the store, the more likely it is residents will fill the gap with food purchased at convenience stores. Unhealthy foods exacerbate health problems already plaguing lowans — obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other ailments. Also, convenience foods often cost more.
Grocery chains prefer to put stores in more affluent areas, compounding a history of housing redlining, discrimination and structural inequality in neighborhoods they abandon. As Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said Thursday, the affected neighborhoods have been improving, thanks, in part, to public investments. Losing the store is clearly a setback.
Todd said in May 2023, a Hy-Vee regional manager informed the city the store would close.
“The mayor, city manager and I basically said no way in hell,” Todd said.
The lease on the land was set to expire and, at some point, the land had been sold.
“The fact that somewhere along the line they had sold the land was news to us, so we tracked down the owners and stressed to them the importance of this store and they soon informed us that a new lease had been signed for a five-year term,” Todd said. “Anything Hy-Vee says today to the contrary is gobbledygook.
“The way Hy-Vee announced their decision was purposeful and done in a manner that puts the city at a disadvantage. It was a betrayal of trust and a mutual working relationship that I thought we had developed throughout the years. To simply suggest that current shoppers can walk to other stores is a callous disregard of reality. This is a stain on their brand and on those that made this decision,” Todd said.
So, what now? It will take considerable work to replant the food desert. It’s likely government investments will be needed again.
The state could help. Rep. Brian Lohse, R-Bondurant, filed legislation this year that would have set up a $2 million fund to help pay for grocery store projects in underserved communities. It passed a House committee but died without further action.
Local stakeholders can be recruited. Plans must be made, and partnerships formed. It’s a difficult situation, but not hopeless.
Waterloo is a good example of what can be done. Hy-Vee also announced it is closing a Waterloo store next month. But the good news is All-In Grocery, a community-supported store, is open. It took seven years for city leaders and residents of the Walnut neighborhood to make it happen.
All-In is more than a grocery store. It offers after-school programs through the 1619 Freedom School, a community center and a reentry program for residents who have been incarcerated, according to Iowa Public Radio.
“We shouldn’t have to have a celebration for the opening of a grocery store in our own community,” said Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Waterloo native and Pulitzer Price-winning founder of the 1619 project. “It just shows that we have so many obstacles to overcome for things that other communities can do normally.”
We also shouldn’t have to have a wake for the loss of a grocery store. A city that overcame floods and a derecho can surely figure out a way to put healthy food back on the table.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
Opinion: Hy-Vee, where there’s a cold corporate shrug in every aisle
Coldhearted is a good way to describe the closing of its store on First Avenue in Cedar Rapids’ core
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