Statewide Iowa (RI) — The head of Iowa’s largest supermarket chain says market trends show consumers began eating the majority of their food outside of their home three years ago.
HyVee CEO Randy Edeker says grocers were adjusting to that new reality when the COVID-19 crisis hit. The first two weeks were rough, he admits.
(as said) “It was like drinking from a fire hose and making hundreds of decisions that we’d never faced before,” Edeker says.
Edeker, who became chairman of FMI — the Food Industry Association in January, says crisis often sparks innovation.
(as said) “A lot of our grocery stores have been buying food from restaurants and selling it out of the stores,” Edeker says. “…Out of this crisis will come good in the end.”
Edeker made his comments last Friday when he hosted the vice president at Hy-Vee headquarters in West Des Moines.
