Some businesses honor long-time employees with company swag, a premium online subscription, or by other means.
Two veteran workers at Macomb’s Hy-Vee store are receiving a different sort of recognition. New wraps on the side of Hy-Vee semi-trailer trucks feature their smiling faces.
“The company does a lot for us. To get acknowledged, it’s a very proud moment,” said Chris Combs, who called the recognition “truly impressive.”
The grocery store chain has a tradition of acknowledging its longest-serving employees in this fashion.
Combs started working at Hy-Vee right out of high school 45 years ago.
“My dad was the store director, so I worked for my dad. It wasn’t optional,” Combs said with a laugh.
When he started, Combs sorted cans and bottles in a tin shed at a Hy-Vee in Iowa. He’s worked in a number of stores through the years, and now is part of Macomb’s scanning office, where they do price changes.
Hy-Vee has stores in eight Midwestern states: Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, and the chain has announced plans to expand to Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.
Macomb Store Director Will Woods said, “This (the pictures on the trucks) gets seen throughout our eight-state territory. So it’s not just going to be this community that gets to see and celebrate these employees,”
He said the Macomb store has around 365 full-time and part-time employees.
Another of those employees, Scott Vogler, is also being featured on Hy-Vee’s trucks. He has been with Hy-Vee for 46 years, starting out as a part-time employee while he was in college.
“It’s a part-time job that never ended. It’s been a great career,” he said.
Vogler started out in the former Hy-Vee store on University Drive in Macomb (TSPR is now headquartered in that building).
He’s been in the meat department for almost his entire Hy-Vee career. He’s worked in several communities through the years before ending up back in Macomb.
Vogler is honored to be pictured on a Hy-Vee truck
“Wow. It’s pretty cool,” said Vogler. “Now I’ll go down the road and I’ll look at every Hy-Vee truck and see if it’s got my picture on it.”
And if it does, Vogler says he’ll honk and wave.
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