Grocery chain enters Madison market

Oct 24, 2009 (The Wisconsin State Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- KMRT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Joe Clausius finally has an answer to all the questions.

The alderman has said the Hy-Vee grocery has a been a topic of discussion in his 17th District since the Iowa company announced two years ago it would open its first Wisconsin store at the former Kmart site at 3801 E. Washington Ave.

"The questions I always heard were, 'When will they open?' and 'When can we apply?'" Clausius said.

On Tuesday, Hy-Vee will open its doors at 6 a.m. with about 400 new employees. The 90,000-square-foot store signals that a new player has entered the Madison and Wisconsin grocery market.

"It's a historic thing in our company to add another state," Hy-Vee CEO Ric Jurgens said in a visit to the store on Friday.

This is the 226th store and the eighth state in the company's portfolio. Another Hy-Vee store is being built at Westgate for possible opening next year.

"It will be interesting to see how they do, since it's their first venture in the state," said David Livingston of Pewaukee, a grocery analyst. "Madison is as good a place to come in as any because of the growth, the population base and the fact that Madison is pretty recession-proof."

Hy-Vee may be coming from out of state, but the company tweaked its store for this market. It has the largest cheese selection of any Hy-Vee store, manager Rob Budd said, with a special section set aside just for Wisconsin artisanal cheeses.

The wine and spirits department had to change its usual design because of the number of local beers the store could stock.

"We had to move the imports and just fill that section with Wisconsin and regional beers," Budd said.

The produce department will have photos of growers whose food is sold. Budd and other store staff met with the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and the Something Special From Wisconsin program, which indicates what items on the shelves are local.

There are five aisles of organic and natural foods, included a gluten-free food section.

Madison also was the perfect location for the company to create a store that aims to earn certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Jurgens said. The site development, flooring, lighting, plumbing and waste management are all aimed at getting LEED certification.

"We thought Madison would be a great place to try this," Jurgens said. "You want to go somewhere where people have the passion for it and understand it."

Hy-Vee plans to do more than sell groceries. There is a large selection of prepared foods, including Chinese and Italian sections. Breakfast and other food can be made to order and there is a 178-seat dine-in area.

There also is a Caribou Coffee shop, dry cleaning through Klinke, a flower shop with delivery in Madison and a community room for meetings or cooking classes. The store will have a pharmacy and a staff dietitian.

Even without opening its doors, the store has made a difference in the area, Clausius said. The landscaped parking area is a contrast to the vast open lot that was the ire of many in the city even when Kmart was open from 1969 to 2003. The site was cited three times by the grassroots group Capital Community Citizens, which three times gave it its Onion award for environmental blunders. "It's going to jump-start that area that has been a dead zone since Kmart closed," Clausius said.

If nothing else, the Hy-Vee jingle will soon be in the heads of Wisconsinites, its lyric of "a helpful smile in every aisle" as familiar to Iowans as the Oscar Mayer wiener song is everywhere else.

"I'll be in Florida and I'll meet people who sing it to me," Jurgens said. "They grew up with it. I think the community here will start to recognize that jingle, too."

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