HY VEE FOOD STORES

HY-VEE FOOD STORES. In 1930 Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg founded the company when they opened a general store in Beaconsfield, Iowa. More stores were started, and in 1938, the company incorporated into Hyde & Vredenburg, Inc. Hyde & Vredenburg had fifteen stores in Iowa and Missouri at that point including the Leon (IA) Hy-Vee and Lamoni (IA) Hy-Vee. In 1945 Hyde & Vredenburg moved its corporate headquarters from Lamoni to Chariton, Iowa, after acquiring the Chariton Wholesale Company. (1)

The Hy-Vee name, a contraction of Hyde and Vredenburg, was adopted in 1952 as the winning entry of an employee contest. The first store to open under the Hy-Vee name opened in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1953. In 1960 the company became employee owned by the Employees’ Trust Fund. Its name was officially changed to Hy-Vee Food Stores, Inc., in 1963. In 1969 Hy-Vee expanded into Minnesota after acquiring the Swanson Stores chain based in Cherokee, Iowa. That year it opened its first Drug Town pharmacy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; in 2005 all Drug Town stores were renamed Hy-Vee Drugstores in order to reflect the relationship between the chain's pharmacies and supermarkets. (2)

In 1998 employees of Hy-Vee in Dubuque worked to establish a world's record ice cream sandwich while raising money to combat juvenile diabetes. The finished product weighed 2,300 pounds and was fourteen feet long, three feet wide, and about 1.5 feet thick. Two baking pans were specially made by GIESE SHEET METAL COMPANY INC. and METZ BAKING COMPANY offered its ovens. Wells Blue Bunny donated 1,100 half-gallon cartons of ice cream along with a refrigerated trailer where the sandwich was assembled and displayed. Unveiled on February 27, 1998 the sandwich could be viewed before it was dished out in return for contributions which were hoped to raise at least $2,000. (3)

In 2010 between 325 and 350 youngsters attended the annual free Hy-Vee Kids Fishing Derby at Bergfeld Pond. With several Iowa Department of Natural Resources personnel to watch and bait supplied by the Bait Shack, participants displayed their own unique fishing techniques with parents nearby to help. (4)

On June 2, 2015 the Hy-Vee stores at 400 S. Locust and 2395 Northwest Arterial began offering automobile license renewal kiosk. The devices allowed customers to renew or replace their driver's license or identification cards with a camera capable of taking new ID photos. (5)

In March, 2018 the Hy-Vee on Locust became the eleventh Hy-Vee in the nation to offer Tesla Superchargers with eight charging stations to their customers driving electric Vesla vehicles. (6)

See: ASBURY PLAZA

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Source:

1. "Hy-Vee" Wikipedia

2. Ibid.

3. Bragg, Mary Rae. "Ice Cream Sandwich With a Latitude," Telegraph Herald, February 27, 1998, p. 3A. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=aEyKTaVlRPYC&dat=19980227&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

4. Reber, Craig D., "Reel Fun Lures Families to Event," Telegraph Herald, June 6, 2010, p. 1A

5. Montgomery, Jeff, "Grocery List: Milk, Bread, Eggs...Oh Yeah, Iowa Driver's License," Telegraph Herald, June 3, 2015, p. 1A

6. Montgomery, Jeff. "Tesla Charging Station Coming to Hy-Vee," Telegraph Herald, March 26, 2018, p. 1A

The 1987 Dubuque City Directory listed 1220 Iowa and 3500 Dodge.

The 1989 through 1993 Dubuque City Directory listed 3500 Dodge.