Hy-Vee going away from staying open 24 hours

WEST DES MOINES — Iowans who get a hankering for a midnight snack will soon have to head for a convenience store and not the nearest HyVee.

Starting next Monday, the West Des Moines-based grocery chain will stop keeping its stores open around the clock. Hy-Vee spokeswoman Tina Potthoff says few customers do their shopping between midnight and 6 a.m., so all current 24-hour stores will be scaling back their hours.

“We’re encouraging customers to check with their local Hy-Vee stores to get the exact times for their specific locations,” Potthoff says. “We have always had stores that were not 24 hours so this is just moving the rest of our stores to that scheduling model.”

Some stores will close from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., for others, it may be midnight to 5 a.m. Despite the downsizing of store hours, Potthoff says there will be no downsizing of staff. “We’ve been receiving some questions about whether or not people will be losing their jobs during this transition,” Potthoff says. “That is not the case. Everyone who works overnight hours, even though we’ll still need staffing overnight, those individuals that would typically be working or serving customers overnight will be moved to a busier shift during the day.”

The chain has about 83,000 employees and is Iowa’s largest grocer. Potthoff says plenty of other types of businesses are dumping ’round-the-clock hours. “The trend is — really, we’re seeing many retailers not go 24-7,” Potthoff says. “There are others that are out there that are moving to more of the early morning to midday to nighttime feel for their customers and aren’t necessarily keeping their doors open for all hours of the day.”

Hy-Vee has 265 stores. About half of them are in Iowa. The rest are in seven other Midwestern states.