Hy-Vee

I have never grocery shopped here (only because it makes no sense due to where I live) but I learned that they have really good lunch options. I don’t know who I’ve become that I even care about this, but our team stops in at least once a week. Portion size is pretty solid, there’s no real wait due to the cafeteria-​style of service, and the pricing is pretty kind.
(Tip: Military gets charged as an employee meal, so the pricing is excessively kind then)
Food choices are similar to any bigger grocery store deli selection (one protein and two sides), as well as the giant salad bar, some rotating variation on fried chicken, tenders or wings, and another counter with pizza or a sizable Chinese food buffet.
This may be about the lamest thing I review, but I felt the need to draw attention to it.

I’ve finally had enough. After months of terrible produce, cashiers failing to put all bags in my cart (recently it was steaks and deli meat), and a bout of food poisoning from a rotisserie chicken, I won’t give this place another cent. I’d rather spend an extra $ 15 on food I actually get to bring home, and honestly the savings aren’t that significant anyway.

We go here for the hot bar. The grocery store has a good selection overall, especially of cheese and organic packaged products but it is very expensive. For that reason we do not buy groceries from here, for that I go to Woodmans, the Willy Street Co-​op or the Jenny Street Market. Their hot bar has a wide selection. We often get a bucket of fried and roasted chicken and a few sides. Prices for the hot bar aren’t too high either. Mind you, the food is not stellar but for a grocery store hot bar it is fairly high quality. I’ve gotten bakery a few times as well but I’m always disappointed (it’s alright for a grocery store but just isn’t that well done overall). Hy-​Vee works if you’re looking to bring something home for dinner but don’t have time to cook.

I’ve always loved Hyvee. I just moved here from Illinois and I miss my old Hyvee even more! Unfortunately, this Hyvee lacks big time. They just aren’t put together, always long lines and just mediocre customer service. They need more staff and to tidy up the store!

**I can’t speak for the grocery store but I can speak about the deli area**
I came here to get something to eat for dinner and I was pleasantly surprised. They have a hot bar, a salad bar and a nice deli area. They also had a part where you can get pizza or Chinese — either to eat at the store or to go. It was nice because there were so many options for dinner at a grocery store that wasn’t frozen, required cooking or anything of that sort.
I will be back. Maybe I’ll take some time to wander around the grocery store.

Hy-​Vee, like all grocery stores (except the co-​op) has its uses.
GOOD
deli meats and cheeses
hot deli serves lotsa decent comfort food
take-​and-​bake pizzas (they have a pretty good gluten-​free crust)
chinese deli is as good as any cheapo chinese restaurant, and a lot cheaper
bulk M&M dispensers!
Better selection of regular groceries than Copps
house-​brand frozen veggies are pretty good
BAD
regular groceries are kinda expensive, like Copps-​level
produce is hit-​or-​miss (but that’s true everywhere)
ice cream selection is not great
They have a Caribou Coffee (eastside store only)

Prices are on the higher side and the produce department is always bare. It seems they don’t bother to keep the fruits and veggies very stocked.

There are so many things that Hy-​Vee does right and yet, there are also so many things they do wrong. The 24 hour 7 days a week grocery store serves as a convenience to locals. Variety is plentiful including a sweet smelling bakery, hot lunch items at the attached buffet style grille, great deli and fresh seafood. My main reasoning for going to Hy-​Vee is they supply a few items I’ve yet to spot at other stores I frequent such as Horizon Organic Vanilla Yogurt and Voss water. I’ve searched all over Madison to find Voss water and I finally spotted it my last visit to Hy-​Vee. For that, I am pleased. Also, they have a great selection of steaks. Sometimes, I am wanting to make something like beef stir fry. Hy-​Vee is my go to spot for this.
The failures consists of prices and quality of fruits. I liken it to Copps on Park Street. If you know anything about that store, it is that they have horrible fruits and veggies. Not fresh at all. Recently, I went to Hy-​Vee to pick up on a few items because I was too lazy to drive to Woodmans out in Sun Prairie which is my go to grocery store. There I bought a small case of strawberries. The next day, they were molded. I email the Store Director including pictures of my fruit. I wasn’t rude. I just wanted him to know that less than 24 hours after I bought fruit from his store, they were in the trash. He was very apologetic and offered me another package so I wouldn’t have to eat the cost. I appreciate his willingness to make right.
Well… a week later, I go in to get my strawberries. There were only 6 cases out and they all were going bad. I could see the leaves turning white-​ish/​brownish color, there were several dark spot on them, they looked very soft and were discoloring. I passed on the free strawberries. I went back just last week and had the same experience. Now, sometimes, the time you grocery shop can make a difference in getting the better batches of food. I always go to Hy-​Vee around 1pm where you would think they would be stocked from the morning crew and do to the fact people typically are at work/​school during this time.
I am not sure if due to nature and it being a bad strawberry season. I cannot find a good store (including Woodmans and Costco) this winter where the strawberries were sweet and ripe. However not one of them came close to the quality I’ve witnessed from Hy-​Vee this winter. Absolutely horrible.
Hy-​Vee is the perfect store if you’re looking to find items to make a special meal for a special occasion. But there is not way I could ever full out grocery shop here due to insanely high prices and poor quality of produce. I do love that they have small packaged veggies like asparagus, zucinni and squash. I shop only for my boyfriend and I and he doesn’t like cooked veggies. It saves me $$$ to buy these items pre packaged.
Extremely friendly staff who are always asking if you’re finding everything you need. The best customer service I’ve experienced from a grocery store. Please keep up the great work with your service, Hy Vee.
I give them a 3 star because they really are a good store for the variety they offer. Also, the staff is second to none. Where they severely fail is quality of their produce and high prices. I would be willing to pay more if the quality of some of their food was better. For that, I must knock them down a few stars.

I love this place! I wish they would buy the Copps on the east/​north side since Copps is horrible and also since Shopko is vacant it would be the perfect location.

I stopped in Thursday evening around 8 pm to pick up a few things. I hadn’t been in Hy-​Vee since shortly after they opened. It was just, ok, fine, a store, whatever. Last night I went in with a more observant eye, perhaps, since I’m a Unilocaler now, and I must say, I kinda love the place.
It’s kind of like the best characteristics of Whole Foods, Copps, and Target in one store. They have quite an extensive selection of higher-​end and organic foods and health and beauty items. They also have all the old standby grocery items. They have pretty much everything.
I remember being unimpressed with the prices the first time I visited back then, but last night everything I bought was cheaper than I have seen it anywhere else but Woodman’s, and it was pretty close to their pricing. Score!
Caribou coffee shop (one of the better chains, in my opinion), wifi, and open 24 hours. A *huge* liquor department, which I spent most of my time perusing, let’s just be honest. They even carry Fever Tree ginger beer, whaaaaat!!! The staff is helpful but unobtrusive, it’s a quiet place, love that. I remarked to a manager about how impressed I was with the selection, and he was modest and almost apologetic that it wasn’t better. Points for humility, dude, but own your greatness! ;-)
There are no self checkouts, but they had plenty of cashiers and no lines. I appreciated the sincerity of the communication with my checker, and the smile and eye contact. I left with beautiful Christmas cards, a fun build-​your-​own six pack of new-​to-​me brews, some pedicure supplies, and ice cream and snacks. What more could a girl want to while away a dark, cold December evening? I’ll be back, Hy-​Vee.

I love that this location has a Caribou Coffee. The only negative aspect was, we went there on a Saturday morning on a Badgers home game day. It was busy and there was only one barista working both the cash register and making drinks. Props to her, she was friendly enough…
I love the salad bar from here. Such a great lunch option! Gets super busy though so I always feel bad toting my daughter around in a cart while there are people waiting behind us.
All the employees I have come across have been friendly and helpful.

I love that this location has Caribou Coffee. And it has a post office kiosk. Alcohol selection is actually pretty impressive as well.
Fair on prices. Produce is the best in the area. I was gluten free for about a year and this place saved me! Great selection of gluten free as well as organic, and other health conscious foods and alternatives. Safer meat selection than Woodmans as well.
Lines will get long but they usually go pretty fast. I have had some really friendly cashiers as well.

This place is just ok. They have their definite highs and lows, but I like mixing it into my grocery store rotation every once in a while.
On my most recent visit, the store was very clean and I loved the variety of prepared food available. Also, I scored some avocados for 99 cents; only Woodman’s can beat those prices, and that’s a whole different story. I picked up some Wild Blue beer, which I have only ever found once before in Madison, so that was cool.
My biggest problem was that I bought some Gouda cheese and went to use it the next day, but was unable to because it had started to mold. I imagine if I would have driven 20 minutes back to the store, I could have gotten a replacement, but the cheese was only $ 6, so it wasn’t worth a the roundtrip excursion.
I would like to stop back and try the «restaurant» everyone is raving about in the other reviews.

Grocery store? Restaurant? Which is it?
Haven’t been to an amazing Hy Vee food bar and buffet since 2006 when I had taken a work trip to Iowa. My bosses dad made the suggestion of eating Sunday Brunch at the local Hy Vee. I was appalled and replied, «What? Eat breakfast at a grocery store?» Not sure if the butcher or baker would be serving my eggs, I took the leap and ventured on to see what this new concept in eating out would be like. My eyes were as big as soccers when I saw how amazing the GRAND Buffet was! Loaded with all my favorites from salads, to soups, fruits, mashed potatoes and eggs.
Just recently moved to Madison so hitting one of these buffets again was on my «must do» list.
It wasn’t a Sunday brunch but the salad bar buffet was off-​the-​hook amazingly delish!
Pricing:
$ 4.99 small plate-​one trip.
$ 5.99 large plate-​one trip.
$ 7.99 UNLIMITED!
Although I can’t eat a lot, I opted for the unlimited because I wanted to try a bunch o the stuff on the buffet.
Started out with lettuce salad, then went back for pasta and rice salads as well as taco dip. Then, ended it with fruit and yogurt. There are just so many choices and it will surely fill you up!
They honor service men by letting them eat for $ 5 if they come in uniform. NICE!
The only negative is that all the tables were dirty. (But it was right after lunch). I had to ask the bus boy to wipe off a table. He wasn’t moving too fast and thought maybe they could feed me every day in exchange for table clearing duty!

I like the Fitchburg HyVee, but I hate this one. Something always goes wrong. Either we get prepackaged food and it’s terrible or they don’t have what we want. Either way, my boyfriend and I have made a promise that we’ll always take the extra time to go to the Fitchburg location.

GREAT GROCERY STORE!
we love HYVEE because they have a solid selection of groceries. this includes name bran stuff, hyvee stuff and a good selection of local stuff ie potter’s crackers and yum butter made here in madison.
since we both work, we often prefer not to cook. we used to live on the east coast where boston market was a weekly for dinner.
we love HYVEE because of the KITCHEN!!!
THEY HAVE EVERYTHING! and if they don’t have what you want…
someone will probably make it for you.
in summary
GREAT GROCERIES
GREAT KITCHEN
GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE

Chain, I know, but here is why an am writing a four star review:
Picture this: Valentines Day, two kids in tow, one who wants a heart shaped pizza. Snow, cold, and we have all ready run five previous errands. I do not want to run another one. So I pray — please let there be a heart shaped pizza here. I scan the pizzas — no heart shaped pizza. My heart drops. Enter friendly pizza man asking if I need help finding anything. I answer, besides my sanity, a heart shaped pizza. He offers to make me one on the spot. I wipe away my tears of gratitude and thank him.
In a day where customer service is hard to find I was very pleasantly surprised to find someone who went the extra mile to help a customer knowing they probably wouldn’t ever get recognized for it.
Way to go!

I grew up near a city with a few Hy-​Vee stores, so it’s not new to me. I’ve loved this store since I was a kid. And now that Madison has a few, I’m quite happy!
The Hy-​Vee on East Wash is a nice, clean and bright store. They have a great selection and there is indeed a helpful smile in some of those aisles! I’m especially happy with their Natural/​Organic food selection. They also have a fantastic selection of bulk bins, including a fine selection of granola. The liquor department is also great and has a vast selection of beer and spirits. The employees are also there to help you pick something out. They really have almost everything I want.
And I’m shocked by some who say their prices are high! Really?! Besides having good prices, they do have a weekly flyer and plenty of good deals. I’m sick of people saying Woodman’s is oh-​so-​great and that their prices are amazingly low. This is often not true and let’s be honest, Woodman’s is a dump. I’ve had far too many hellish shopping experiences at Woodman’s to ever want to return. No, just no.
I haven’t been to the other Hy-​Vee locations in Madison, but I’m plenty happy with the East location.

Soooooooo looks like I’m sticking to the Co-​Op of Metcalfes. Here’s the thing, prices seem much higher than I remember (is that in part because access to produce is a bit more challenging these cold wintry months) and on my last visit the place was an absolute mess. I don’t get it. How does a store get so run down, so bad, so quick! I’ve only lived here a year and a half! Change in management? Fewer employee shifts? Whatever the case, I really don’t think I’ll be back with the vast array of other options in town.

So I want to give you 5 stars, but wow you are expensive.
Ok, so you run good deals, but it is hit and miss. There is no reason that you are SO pricey. I love your produce section but it is not SO outstanding that you can charge $ 3 for a cantaloupe. Alas, I will wait until I win the lottery to shop there regularly. I do appreciate that they have a great bakery section and a wide variety of products. If there is something you need (and willing to pay), then this is your place! Now that the hard part is over, let’s talk all the goodness!
Their hot food section is stupendous! No one can touch it. Need a quick dinner? They have take and bake pizza, hot food to pick-​up and a deli. You can eat it in for special all you can eat deals or take home. They run sales on this as well. In Madison good Chinese is hard to find. It is surprising that some of the better Chinese I have had is in a grocery store. There are also sales that they run at the hot food counter.
Hyvee our love/​hate relationship will have to continue. I love your Chinese food, but I hate your prices.