Todd Fox became the new store director at the Newton Hy-Vee on March 31. He comes from an Iowa City store.
“The transition has been going great with the help of our staff’s experience, knowledge and personalities,” Fox said. “They’re the core of the store. They have welcomed my wife and me with open arms.”
The opportunity to become the store director at the Newton Hy-Vee has been another step in his career with Hy-Vee.
“I have been working with Hy-Vee for 17 years in June,” Fox said. “It was about 12 years ago that I made the decision to make Hy-Vee a career for me because of how they have always taken care of me.
“I started as a part-time courtesy clerk, bagging groceries and pushing carts. I moved up the ranks and each time they have taken very good care of me. I was given the opportunity to get into management, and the support of Hy-Vee made me feel that I could become a store director.”
The spring and summer season brings a time of freshening up the store for the new season. The Newton Hy-Vee is on track to get a version of a Market Grill or a café, which has been implemented into the design of newly-built stores.
“I have my first meeting for that on May 7 and with everything that I have heard all the stores are still on track to get a version of the grill or café,” Fox said. “The grill is a restaurant with a bar with beer and wine with a full service menu and the cafe still has the beer and wine, but has a different style of menu.”
The first major project Fox is going to complete this spring and summer is fixing the pot holes in the parking lot.
“We have been working with a company in town that we thought would be taking care of that this week and they told us that they wouldn’t be able to do it until July,” Fox said. “We have contacted other companies to complete the project. Our goal is to have it done by the end of the week [upon starting the project].”
Fox also plans to have a continued growth of the community garden.
“We have received a grant from Hy-Vee corporate offices through our One-Step program,” Fox said. “The One-Step program is part of our sales of potatoes throughout the company that goes into an account at corporate that they give back to the stores to help us build our community gardens.”
Fox feels that not much planning outside of minor cosmetic work will be needed to be done this spring and summer.
“The store is in very good shape,” Fox said. “We have some lights that need fixed and some painting around the store.”
In his career at Hy-Vee, Fox has grown a passion for promotions and is looking forward to doing more with the community over the spring and summer months.
“We will be doing four hour sales to build up anticipation and in a couple of weeks we will be doing a grill out in appreciation of our customers,” Fox said. “Hy-Vee will be more than just a place to shop it will be a place where you can come and hang out with your friends and maybe pick up some groceries. It’s that kind of experience that I like to add to Hy-Vee.”
Staff writer Zach Johnson may be contacted at (641) 792-3121, ext. 425, or at zjohnson@newtondailynews.com.