Dive Brief:
- Hy-Vee has transitioned four of its Dollar Fresh stores to name-brand Hy-Vee supermarket locations, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to Grocery Dive on Thursday.
- The rebranded stores, located across Iowa, Missouri and South Dakota, now offer “several thousand” more products as well as have a bakery, full-service meat counters, health market and prepared foods section offering sandwiches, salads and baked pizzas, the spokesperson noted.
- The spokesperson said that this move from Hy-Vee is aimed primarily at seeing how customers in these growing communities respond to expanded offerings and the Hy-Vee name.
Dive Insight:
Hy-Vee is rebranding one-fifth of its 22 Dollar Fresh locations to test how a fuller, fresh-focused shop will impact sales in communities seeing population growth. When asked about the performance of the Dollar Fresh banner, Hy-Vee spokesperson Tina Potthoff said Hy-Vee is “continuing to evaluate what banners and offerings work best for our customers in our communities,” adding that Dollar Fresh “is not going anywhere.”
The Midwestern grocer’s rebranding effort was first reported by the Des Moines Register.
The four rebranded stores — located in Dyersville, Iowa; Oak Grove, Missouri; and Harrisburg and Tea, South Dakota — all underwent transitions that took several weeks and did not involve the stores closing, Potthoff told Grocery Dive. She added that the locations retained all of the original staff members and some have plans to hire more to accommodate additions like the newly added bakeries.
Along with the added store sections, the rebranded locations now offer up to 16,000 new items and put a greater emphasis on fresh offerings. Potthoff noted that expanding fresh offerings is another way for the store to differentiate itself and more closely align with traditional Hy-Vee supermarket offerings. The stores also feature all-new signage.
“We want to test out the transition, especially in these four markets, to see if it’s going to have a significant impact on sales and foot traffic going into the store,” Potthoff said, noting that, so far, the reaction “has been very positive.”
Hy-Vee currently has no plans to transition more Dollar Fresh stores to Hy-Vee supermarkets.
Hy-Vee currently operates more than 550 locations across nine Midwestern states.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information from Hy-Vee.
