Shoppers Line Up Early to be First Inside New Janesville Hy-Vee

That didn’t deter a long line of bundled-up customers who were queued from the front of the store and around the corner, approaching neighboring Anytime Fitness.

In addition to groceries, the 97,000-square-foot store at 2500 Humes Road has a food mart, clothing aisles, a pub and Starbucks. A store map may be a needed item for some first-timer visitors.

Tuesday’s grand opening drew a crowd even with actor Mark Wahlberg, of the family that created the Wahlburgers franchise restaurant inside the new Hy-Vee, not present. A cutout of Wahlberg and his brother, Donnie, of New Kids On The Block fame, was situated near the Wahlburgers pub.

A woman from Janesville, Nowenga was her first name, was first in line. She’d arrived just after 4 a.m.

“I’ve never been to one (Hy-Vee). I thought I’d be way back there,” she said, glancing at the ever-growing line 10 minutes before the doors opened.

“It’s bragging rights,” said Colleen Williams, of Janesville, who was third in line. She did not arrive until after 5 a.m.

“I slept in,” Williams said.

Nicki Surlano of Milton, was second in line. All three women knew one another but had not seen each other in about 25 years.

Big store, small world.

Inside the store, two employees stood by a bin that contained 300 “swag bags” filled with coupons and other goodies handed out to the first customers in the store.

As the clock hit 5:58 a.m., Jan Carothers, a Hy-Vee corporate employee, pumped up the in-store employees who were lined up by the front doors and down the aisles directly in front of the entrance.

“All right,” she yelled. “Let’s get started. We got it. Here we go. The doors are opening.”

They were. It was 6 a.m. It was showtime.

Brett VonBank, the district store director, greeted the first customers in the walkway between the two entrance doors and gave them each a flower.

Inside the second set of doors, customers received their swag bag. The in-store employees were applauding, hooting and hollering as if shoppers were Super Bowl champions arriving back in town.

Fifteen minutes later, the swag bag bin was empty. But customers were still filing in.

Forty minutes later, VonBank was busy doing live interviews with two Madison television crews for their morning shows — showing that it’s difficult to find live news stories at 6 a.m.

“It’s a whole lot of excitement and relief,” VonBank said of opening day, after he had completed his television interviews. “It’s awesome to finally get to this point and be able to open our doors.”

VonBank, who had worked at Hy-Vee stores in Iowa and Minnesota, arrived in Janesville three months ago to conduct employment interviews.

The store has more than 650 employees and has staggered shifts 24 hours a day. The store is open to customers from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

“But we had people continuing to come in even when we ran out of those,” VonBank said.

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