New Pioneer Food Co-op opened its new store at 3338 Center Point Rd. NE in Cedar Rapids, in December 2014. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
CEDAR RAPIDS – Iowa’s caucus season has ended, but the negative campaigning appears to have a residual effect.
Hy-Vee, with a dozen grocery stores and pharmacies in the Cedar Rapids area and more than 230 stores in the Midwest, recently sent out a flyer touting its HealthMarket; those aisles devoted to organic and gluten-free products in many of its stores, with the notable exception of the First Avenue Hy-Vee near downtown Cedar Rapids.
Unlike its typical flyers, however, this one offers a side-by-side comparison with a receipt from New Pioneer Food Co-op, which opened a store at 3338 Center Point Road NE, in December 2014, just blocks from the Hy-Vee at Oakland Road NE.
Related: New Pioneer opens doors to new store
New Pioneer offers a wide variety of local, natural and organic products at its stores. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
With less than 10 items – a tiny fraction of the thousands of products available at New Pi – the receipt shows a savings of about $6 at Hy-Vee. What may be more cutting, however, is a note on Hy-Vee’s flyer stating “no pressure to be a member.”
New Pioneer is a member-owned cooperative, but you don’t have to be a member to shop there, and though I’ve been to the store numerous times since it opened, I’ve never been “pressured” to become a member. In fact, the only time it’s mentioned is when the cashier asks for a member number at checkout, not unlike Hy-Vee cashiers asking for a Hy-Vee fuel card.
I’m not a member of New Pi, but I understand that members receive benefits beyond the sales offered at the stores, as well as voting rights regarding the direction of the cooperative. It was those member/owners who voted to open a Cedar Rapids location to offer the same choices for local, organic and natural items as New Pi’s two stores offer in Iowa City and Coralville.
New Pioneer makes it a point to offer fair prices to local farmers and a majority of the co-op’s employees work full time, with benefits. The co-op’s mission is to stimulate the local agricultural production of natural and organic foods by providing a market for those products.
Trust is another factor, with producers thoroughly vetted to provide meat with no artificial growth hormones, for example, and seafood that is 100 percent certified sustainable. And for fans of the former Lincoln Café in Mount Vernon, Iowa, having chef Matt Steigerwald on-site to create prepared foods is a treat. New Pi also supports school gardens and more through its Soilmates program with organic garden educator, Scott Koepke.
Hy-Vee has been increasing the amount of food purchased from local farmers, and offers grants for school gardens and other programs, as well as employing in-store dietitians, who can help customers with nutrition questions. All are admirable.
That’s why I’m puzzled by the need to cut down a competitor, which has just one store in the entire metro area. Maybe, just like the politicians targeted by attack ads, it means New Pi is gaining momentum or has an appeal that other stores just can’t seem to provide. In either case, if you want to have choices of where to shop in Cedar Rapids, it’s easy to vote with your dollars.
See the Hy-Vee flyer, below, and read more about store competition in Cedar Rapids: Three-way grocery store race
Did they even buy the same items? I can’t read the receipts well but they don’t look the same?
They do appear to be the same items, but Hy-Vee’s prices vary from store to store, so I would think it’s difficult to make a true comparison.
Shame on Hy Vee
May well abandon them
Yuck. Pick on someone your own size!
I’ve seen swings in prices in Hy-Vee stores that are rather odd to say the least. I found a cheese I liked in Dubuque that was in an “Orphan” cheese selection, what that generally means is the cheese is about to go past its best to be used by dates and they discount the cheese significantly. They also print the original price on the cheese so I know what it should cost if I would buy it at the regular price. The idea is to reduce the loss of the cheese and allow people to try things they might like at a lower price, so they can sample it. Seems like a good marketing technique, but most stores in the CR Metro area that I have been in don’t do this, in fact, I was told at one store they refuse to do this. What was worse, they did get the cheese that I had tried but the price was over ten dollars higher than the original price I had seen in Dubuque. Aldi’s often has much better cheese prices than Hy-Vee , sometimes they are priced by half of the Hy-Vee offerings. My point is there is value in competition for the consumer, and the more selections we have the better!
I agree, Steve! It’s nice to have more than one place to shop.
New PI is a special place to me, and I have fond memories of Saturday morning treks to the original store from my student apartment in the late ’70s. But to be fair, New Pi made took a pointed swipe at Hi Vee in it’s radio ads comparing it’s completely organic approach to other grocery stores, where “organic is just a corner of the store.” (Or something to that effect .)
It’s all about market share, even in the places we think are above that sort of behavior.
You make a good point about the privileges of membership. As a member, I should step up and express my disappointment in New Pi’s advertising.
However, I must end by saying how thrilled I am that New Pi again has a presence in Cedar Rapids, and that no other shopping experience can begin to compare.
Thanks for your insight, Lori! I haven’t heard the radio commercials.
Oh, boo….super sad to see this. I love both Hy-Vee and New Pi….I hope they apologize soon.
I love my Co+op and all that it supports. I love that I can walk in any day of the week and buy from the same local farmers that I buy from at the farmer’s market and their dedication to clean practices and products. Love you New Pi! Joy to the fishies in the deep blue sea!
“touting its HealthMarket; those aisles devoted to organic and gluten-free products in many of its stores”
Buried the lead. Hy-Vee HealthMarket makes up approx. 10% of total sq footage? To what does Hy-Vee devote the remaining 90% of shelf space to?
I am a client of both and I will stay a client of both, as I am sorry to say but for the pantry area Hy Vee is cheaper (on the same products); and at the end of the day I am a mom who have to stay on a budget. but this time of the year in particular, you can’t beat the produce area at the co op. I don’t get why Hy Vee should apologize, it is the market war! That means the Co op is a real competitor if they feel they have to do those kind of ads; so I wouldn’t say it is an honor to be targeted but I am convinced there are enough consumers for both in town! Hy Vee is bigger but it isn’t walmart guys! they are local, Iowa local not CR local.
I received a wonderful and delicious selection of items for Christmas from my son that he purchased from the co-op and I can’t wait to visit there soon. The next time I am in Cedar Rapids, I plan on visiting. I live in the Quad Cities. I like knowing that the food is produced locally too!
I don’t live in Iowa but in IL and only shop infrequently in your state but I make sure when I am there that I stop to shop.. Actually we shop at the Pioneer Co op in Iowas City. We do have a Hyvee in our city which is very much overpriced because they have no competition.
I love your Pioneer Coop and yes we bought into the store with a membership many years ago and I love to shop there and just wish there was one closer to my hometown. Customers that know your integrity and quality will stay with you.
I have compared prices at New Pi with HyVee and I find HyVee is usually higher priced. Did they do a search to find just six items they priced lower? I agree it depends on where you shop at HyVee because the Coralville HyVee is one if not the highest priced HyVee in Iowa. Maybe they should run an ad that compares their Iowa City store prices to Cedar Rapids and tell us to go shop in CR. The prices seemed to go up when they remodeled the store. I shop NewPi and Target for groceries most of the time now. Target is always cheaper than HyVee on the items they offer.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a former board member of New Pi. (That’s me in the photo and I was probably shouting at someone about how much I love Grinnell carrots.) On any given day you will find certain items cheaper at one store than another. New Pi could easily have it’s own slip showing lower prices than HyVee if it selected a different a set of items. Sometimes there would be no comparable as HyVee does not carry the same breadth of local, sustainable, and organic items. I would guess that most people who do at least some of their shopping at New Pi are coming for fresh items–produce, meat, dairy, and baked goods. That is what we a known for. (Note: there is very little fresh or local on that receipt.) What you won’t find at HyVee is the same dedication to local or clean food standards! not because HyVee is bad, but because that is not their mission. They are a great local supermarket, but health is not their focus. Nor do they our focus on local. NewPi not only sells local product, we advise local producers on everything from food handling to packaging to pricing and marketing. In at least one case we have even provided kitchen space for a local producer. We also negotiate purchasing from local growers before seeds go in the ground so that they are have a price and a minimum amount they can be guaranteed to sell. That kind of important with Iowa unpredictable weather. As local and small producers achieve scale, HyVee sometimes takes note and picks up their product–that’s a good thing since it brings the product to a broader audience. But, keep in mind that often the product would not be available without New Pi to get it started. Also, you are not pressured to be a member, but you do have the opportunity to become an owner, which means you control an equal share of the co-op with every other owner. By being an owner and/or by shopping at a co-op, you are investing each dollar you spend in a cleaner environment, better labor practices, humane treatment of animals, and a healthier local economy. And EVERYONE is welcome to join us in this effort to build a vibrant and sustainable local economy.
So let me get this straight…
$8 billion/year HyVee is attacking a locally owned Co-op that is the main marketplace for hundreds of local farmers?
And, they chose to go after the “natural foods” consumer with Mac-n-cheese, pre-popped popcorn, and pita chips? All of which were not-so coincidentally on sale at HyVee at the time, but are now back to full price–
They don’t really “get” what the Co-op is, huh? The Co-op is the best place, anywhere, for really great, local fresh foods. The produce is divine! Really, it is the best. My goodness, the Grinnell carrots alone are worth the drive. The meat tastes real, and it was humanely raised. Have you tried an organic Kalona chicken? The difference is stark.
Attacking local farmers & small business– the new Hy-Vee way!
So much for support of local, HyVee!
Nobody likes a bully.
Outrageous! I find Hy-Vee’s constant promotion of their fuel saver card incredibly obnoxious and ironically the items that you get the most points on are junk food! Shame on them. I try to avoid them at all costs.
This is typical Hy-Vee. When Olive’s Oil opened near Edgewood Rd. in Cedar Rapids, Hy-Vee was quick to throw out a cart of their own flavored olive oils. Of course, it was done reactively and poorly executed. Similarly, we begged them to expand their organic selection and it wasn’t until New Pioneer announced their new Cedar Rapids store that they started their expansion. Regardless, the implementation was poor, it was focused mostly on packaged, processed organic foods.
Their non-processed foods (produce, meats, prepared foods) are trash when compared to New Pioneer.
Get over it, and don’t be a pansy. Every company, that is not a non profit, is trying to make money. Most companies, big and small, will make price comparisons to their competitors. Most smart businesses will also carry popular items other businesses carry. This is nothing new and happens every here. Just nitpicking to try and find problems…