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RETAIL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
seem a reasonable window, considering the expansive geography of the Midwest, for individual Hy-Vee stores, “local” could easily mean walking distance.
During our Waukee, IA, store visit, Chris Abbott, manager of perishables, pointed to organic sweet potatoes grown 6.3 miles away. “Customers look forward each season to our neighborhood farmer’s sweet corn, picked and delivered the same day from 7.2 miles down the road.” It doesn’t get any fresher or more local than that. To complement the mix, Abbott showed us store-made salsas and guacamoles inter- spersed with specialty varieties procured from local vendors.
Store directors are given autonomy to procure local produce from farmers in their vicinity, if those suppliers meet the compa- ny’s food safety criteria. “We do have some pretty good-size suppliers that will handle different areas,” says Bremser. “For example, Kansas City has one farm that supplies all our Kansas City stores, and it’s just north of the Kansas City Metro. So, if that farmer were to produce enough volume, let’s say sweet corn and zucchini, it will cover all those stores,” he says.
“These suppliers are able to have the proper food safety protocols because of their volume, and not have the cost prohibit them. We have many agreements, but those are made by our store directors in the individual markets, not at corporate,”- says Bremser, adding, “A store director can manage a few relationships like that across his/her store, where we would have to manage hundreds of them.”
Still, many consumers may not realize just how close these farms are to their store. “We came up with a new Homegrown program about three years ago that more identi es and tells the story of some of our local partners,” says Griesenbrock. “Every year, we do a refresh with signs and other POS materials, cardboard cut-outs and ironman signs; in some cases, we get the growers to visit stores and talk about their product. Local and Homegrown are a big part of our business, and we always want to make it a bigger part, knowing consumers want to support local as much as possible.”
On the other side, local is more sustain- able. “There’s the smaller carbon footprint,” says Griesenbrock. “I also think about a lot of our local partners in the Midwest. Mother Nature is contributing to growing
that product, and very few are relying on irrigation systems,” he says, pointing to longstanding relationships with some of these companies. “Those are important to us, but that doesn’t mean we’re not always looking for additional partners.”
At the beginning of a new year, the company opens the process of thinking about strategies in each area. “The produce
supervisors in those areas reach out to all the stores and get them together for Homegrown meetings, supplemented by a regional Homegrown meeting, which shows how important it is to us,” says Griesenbrock.
Hy-Vee’s organic numbers also are increasing each day, whether it’s in produce or in the chain’s natural and organic
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