Supermarket chain Hy-Vee is closing its Kansas City fulfillment center, resulting in the loss of nearly 600 jobs.
The West Des Moines-based company said in a notification under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) that it had made “the difficult decision to permanently discontinue all operations” at the fulfillment center, which is located at 8700 Elmwood Ave., effective May 6.
The closure is part of a larger restructuring in which all four of Hy-Vee’s online fulfillment centers will be discontinued. The others are in Eagan, Minnesota; Des Moines, Iowa; and Omaha, Nebraska.
Christina Gayman, a spokeswoman for Hy-Vee, said the company will stop fulfilling orders at the Kansas City center on March 23.
"We are listening to our customers and they are wanting a full assortment of products, personalized shoppers and same-day pick up at the store, which we are unable to fully provide when we process orders at a fulfillment center," Gayman said in an email. "Fulfillment center operations will be transferred to our retail stores in the market later this month – that means customers’ orders will once again be fulfilled at their local Hy-Vee store."
The 136,000-square-foot Kansas City center, which opened only last fall, was part of a $90 million investment Hy-Vee is making in the greater Kansas City area, including upgrades of its 14 area stores.
In its WARN Act notification, the company said it anticipated that closing the Kansas City center will cost up to 583 employees their jobs, "although the company will be talking with a number of employees about continued employment with the company."
Hy-Vee, which is employee-owned, operates more than 260 stores in eight Midwestern states, including Missouri and Kansas. The company has estimated annual revenue of about $10 billion.
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
