Meet Hy-Vee, Inc. Store Manager Awards Finalist

Category C: Jen Book
Hy-Vee, Inc., Altoona, Iowa

She was recently inducted into the Hy-Vee's Hall of Fame, after more than three decades of strong performance. She sets the tone for service and continually climbs up the charts in profits and sales, notching 10 consecutive years of record sales. 

Jen Book, manager of a Hy-Vee location in Altoona, Iowa, was lauded in 2019 for 30-plus years of service and strong management skills. She is not one to let success get to her head, though, and typically works the sales floor to assist shoppers right alongside her team members.

Paying Leadership Forward

It’s a big team: she oversees 120 full-time and 270 part-time employees in a town with a population of 18,000.  Business is personal for Book, who works closely with staff members and prides herself in regular communication with them across the board, including face time with kitchen dishwashers, stockers, cashiers, pharmacists and hundreds of others.

A believer in paying leadership forward, she has helped many employees advance and run their own departments and, in some cases, their own stores, by giving them special duties and projects. Book is a certified trainer in two Hy-Vee University training programs. 

You can also find her talking with customers daily. Book also welcomes secret shoppers as a way to improve the store’s service and operations. Among other reasons, the store’s impeccable customer service has helped the location reap higher year-over-year increases.

A Proponent of Service and Teamwork

One idea-starter that turns into shopper excitement and sales is product sampling.  Book schedules up to 80 hours of store hosts and food demonstrators every week as a way to keep things fresh and provide shopping solutions to customers. 

In the broader community, she is likewise a proponent of service and teamwork, leading the Altoona store’s participation in local programs with anti-hunger, veterans, children’ s hospital, school and police and fire organizations. When tornadoes tore through the area last year, she sprang into action, providing water and food for cleanup crews. She received a Corporate Star Award from the Altoona Chamber of Commerce for her commitment to customer service and to the well-being of the community.

That honor, like her Hy-Vee Hall of Fame induction, makes Book a real rock star.

“Jen Book has been running well-stocked, fundamentally sound stores for years. She sets high standards that her employees follow. She leads in a quiet but strong manner. She works hard and has continually shown increase in profit and sales.” Scott James, retired Hy-Vee vice president who oversaw her region.