Hy-Vee is an employee-owned chain of supermarkets located in the Midwestern United States.As of January 2008, Hy-Vee operates 197 supermarkets and 26 Drugstores in seven states. Over 100 of its supermarkets are located in Iowa, with additional stores in Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota. They also operate 26 Hy-Vee Drugstores (formerly known as DrugTown) in Iowa and Nebraska. Hy-Vee also operates liquor stores under the names Regal Liquors and Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits.Most Hy-Vee stores are full-service supermarkets with bakeries, delicatessens, banks, florists, and pharmacies. To keep pace with Wal-Mart's recent expansion into the gas station business, Hy-Vee has also added gas stations with convenience stores on some of its properties. Customers are often given a discount of several cents per gallon of gas when their grocery receipt is shown.Hy-Vee is known for its longtime advertising slogan, "Where there's a helpful smile in every aisle", whose music was written by James Poulsen. The slogan was adopted for Hy-Vee's first television commercial in 1963.Two-time National Football League MVP Kurt Warner once stocked shelves at a Hy-Vee Store in Cedar Falls, Iowa. After being cut by the Green Bay Packers at age 24, he thought his football career might be over and worked there to cover bills. HistoryThe company was founded by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg, who opened a general store in Beaconsfield, Iowa, in 1930. More stores were started, and in 1938, the company incorporated into Hyde & Vredenburg, Inc. Hyde & Vredenburg had 15 stores in Iowa and Missouri at that point. In 1945 Hyde & Vredenburg moved its corporate headquarters from Lamoni to Chariton, Iowa, after acquiring the Chariton Wholesale Company.The Hy-Vee name, a contraction of Hyde and Vredenburg, was adopted in 1952 as the winning entry of an employee contest. The first store to open under the Hy-Vee name opened in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1953. The company's name was officially changed to Hy-Vee Food Stores, Inc., in 1963. In 1969 Hy-Vee expanded into Minnesota after acquiring the Swanson Stores chain based in Cherokee, Iowa. That year it opened its first DrugTown pharmacy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; in 2005 all DrugTown stores were renamed Hy-Vee Drugstores in order to reflect the relationship between the chain's pharmacies and supermarkets. Hy-Vee continued expanding during the 1970s and 1980s, opening stores in South Dakota (1975), Nebraska (1977), Illinois (1979), and Kansas (1988). Hy-Vee's 100th store, which was also its first to use electronic cash registers, opened in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1975. By the end of 1989 Hy-Vee had 172 stores in seven states. In 1995 Hy-Vee moved its corporate headquarters from Chariton to its current home in West Des Moines, Iowa, while shortening its name to Hy-Vee, Inc. The company still has its primary distribution center in Chariton; a second distribution center is located in Cherokee, Iowa.Hy-Vee purchased the naming rights to the Iowa Events Center's exhibition hall in 2001; Hy-Vee Hall was completed in December 2004. Hy-Vee also sponsors the Hy-Vee Triathlon, which is held in Des Moines each year, and the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series, a series of athletic competitions between Iowa State University and the University of Iowa that began in 2004. It also sponsored the Legends Tour's Hy-Vee Classic golf tournament in Johnston, Iowa, from 2000 to 2006 before it discontinued the tournament in order to focus on the Hy-Vee Triathlon.Throughout its history Hy-Vee has branched out from its retail operations by acquiring several companies that provide services to its stores. Hy-Vee's non-retail subsidiaries are:D & D Foods, Inc., a supplier of fresh salads based in Omaha, NebraskaFlorist Distributing, Inc., a distributor of flowers and plants based in Des Moines, IowaHy-Vee Weitz, L.C., a construction company based in Des MoinesLomar Distributing, Inc., a specialty food distributor based in Des MoinesThe Meyocks Group Inc., an advertising, marketing, and product research firm based in West Des Moines, IowaMidwest Heritage Bank, FSB, a bank based out of Chariton, IowaPerishable Distributors of Iowa, Ltd., a distributor of meat, seafood, and ice cream, based in Ankeny, IowaHy-Vee Inc. employs over 52,000 individuals and is the largest employer in the state of Iowa. The company has annual sales of over $5.84 billion. In 2007, Hy-Vee ranked 47th on Forbes magazine's annual list of the largest privately owned companies in the United States.When the rival Eagle Food Centers chain of supermarkets ceased operations, Hy-Vee had purchased several of the locations. Initially Hy-Vee intended to remodel the buildings and reopen them as Hy-Vees, however the company later decided to demolished and replaced the buildings with newer ones. The company often repeats this process with other purchased locations, in order to maintain a consistent corporate image.In November of 2007, Hy-Vee announced plans to open a store in Madison, Wisconsin, on the site of an abandoned K-Mart. Planning to begin work once approval is given, this would be the first Hy-Vee location in Wisconsin. It would also mark the first time that Hy-Vee has expanded into a new state since 1988. References^ a b c Hy-Vee, The Largest Private Companies. Forbes (2006). Retrieved on 2007-02-04.^ Hy-Vee, Inc.. Hy-Vee Store Finder. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.^ Hy-Vee, Inc. (press release) (2005-06-08). Drug Town Changes Name to Hy-Vee Drugstore. Retrieved on 2006-09-03.^ FundingUniverse.com. Hy-Vee, Inc., Company History. Retrieved on 2006-09-03.^ Brown, Rick. "Hy-Vee ends its golf outing in Johnston", The Des Moines Register, 2007-03-27, p. 1C. ^ Hy-Vee Plans First Grocery Store in Wisconsin (English). Associated Press. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.