DAVENPORT, Iowa — Sunday evening, the Hy-Vee location on Rockingham Road in Davenport closed for good.
Inside, the shelves were bare, and employees tell News 8 the remaining stock is going to other locations. Some of those employees are, too.
West End resident Sherrie Schmitt made one last stop at the grocery store.
"I didn't realize it when I needed sugar and came to get it that this was the last day," Schmitt said.
She said when Hy-Vee leaves, it's taking services like its pharmacy, deli and can return with it. If people want to shop for food in their own neighborhood, they have to go to dollar stores that have a limited fresh selection. Schmitt said there are plenty of people that don't have their own transportation.
"Down here there's Dollar General, Family Dollar, yeah people think prices are great, but quantities are small," Schmitt said. "What does a regular family do?"
It's also not the first business to close their Rockingham Road location.
"Everything's closed down here in the West End. The McDonald's, the Hardee's, Happy Joe's," Schmitt said. "It's like we're a suburb of Davenport now. It's sad."
That Happy Joe's closed nearly two years ago — it's still sitting vacant.
Starting on Monday, Hy-Vee said it will offer shuttles to nearby locations from the stores it's closing in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Davenport. Shuttles will bring shoppers from the Rockingham Road location to the West Locust location through September 1 — the company will evaluate their usage after that. Those will only run on three days a week:
- Mondays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Hy-Vee is also offering free grocery delivery for up to a year for anyone within a one-mile radius of the closed stores. To register, call Hy-Vee Customer Care at (800) 772-4098 before September 1. Delivery requires a minimum order of $24.95.
Free pharmacy delivery will continue for all Davenport residents. The Rockingham Road pharmacy closed Friday and automatically transferred prescriptions to the West Locust location.
The company said it will work with River Bend Food Bank in Davenport to set up a mobile food pantry in the parking lot of the Rockingham Road location. There are four planned distribution events in July and August, but no dates or times have been released.
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