Linking pharmacy and nutrition

The past year has been an eventful one for Hy-Vee.

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The Iowa-based supermarket chain made news early last year by announcing it would enter, for the first time, the Twin Cities market of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Hy-Vee locked down two store locations in the area before year’s end, and laid out a fairly aggressive expansion plan that will add several new stores to the Twin Cities market per year, over the next several years.

Hy-Vee also expanded its reach into community health care and specialty pharmacy, finalizing its purchase last year of Amber Pharmacy.

Now in its 85th year, Hy-Vee thrives by catering to a fiercely loyal customer base with a homegrown brand of personal service and a steadily expanding menu of health-and-wellness offerings, served up by more than 900 pharmacists and some 200 dietitians offering advice on healthy eating in so-called “HealthMarket” departments in most Hy-Vee stores.

The company’s commitment to health-and-wellness is further reflected in such programs as NuVal nutritional scoring system and wellness programs for consumers and employees.

Dietitians and pharmacists provide scheduled group biometric screenings, both within the stores and at local employers’ workplaces, as well as counseling on weight loss, diabetes management and other topics. The company also partners with such regional health entities as the University of Nebraska Medical Center to offer customers rapid-diagnostic tests, conducted by Hy-Vee pharmacists, for such conditions as influenza and strep.

Earlier this year, the chain revealed it would discontinue its Hy-Vee Triathlon events, and “shift its efforts to create a new event series promoting health-and-wellness in children.”