Hy-Vee announced this week that it is getting rid of all the Wahlburgers still operating in its stores. Hy-Vee Market Grilles will take the place of the celebrity-adjascent burger joints.
Interestingly, Hy-Vee’s news release about the change never mentions Wahlburgers. The West Des Moines-based supermarket chain simply said it will “transition all its in-store restaurant locations across the Midwest to Hy-Vee Market Grille locations with a brand-new menu that primarily focuses on breakfast and burgers.”
The new menu is scheduled to start on Feb. 4, according to Hy-Vee.
Massachusetts-based Wahlburgers was started in 2011 by Paul Wahlberg, in association with his better-known brothers, actor Mark Wahlberg (who also performed under the name “Marky Mark” during his former career as a rapper in the early ’90s) and actor and boy band member Donnie Wahlberg. Three years later, A&E Network, a basic cable channel, launched a reality show about Paul, on which his brothers occasionally made guest appearances. That same year, the first Wahlburgers franchise location opened in Toronto.
In 2017, Hy-Vee announced it had entered an “innovative” partnership with Wahlburgers.
“The organization plans to build, own and operate 26 Wahlburgers restaurants — nearly doubling the brand’s current locations,” the August 2017 news release said. “Hy-Vee will add select Wahlburgers menu items in all Market Grille restaurants.”
Hy-Vee said the move “will diversify its business model while reinforcing its mission of making customers’ lives easier, healthier and happier.”
Buying the rights to 26 franchises made Hy-Vee Wahlburgers’ biggest franchisee.
A year later, Hy-Vee announced “all 84 Hy-Vee Market Grille restaurants will offer Wahlburgers-branded menu items.” At that point, Hy-Vee had opened three Wahlburgers locations.
In March 2020, Hy-Vee announced a major expansion of its Wahlburgers plans. The supermarket chain said it would be converting all its in-store Market Grille restaurants.
“Our customers are wanting more fresh and convenient meal options,” Hy-Vee explained in a written statement.
According to the Wahlburgers site at the time Hy-Vee made its announcement, those options included “the sloppiest Sloppy Joe’s, the tastiest tater tots, and frothiest frappes, based on the same recipes Paul and his 8 siblings devoured as kids — taken to another Wahlberg-ian level.”
Hy-Vee never came close to converting all its Market Grilles into Wahlburgers. It has even closed some of its in-store Wahlburger locations in recent years. Hy-Vee also opened several standalone franchise locations.
In January 2023, Hy-Vee closed the last of its standalone restaurants in the Des Moines metro area. Hy-Vee said at the time, it would only open new Wahlburgers in its stores, although it would keep the standalone it owned in the Mall of America open.
According to the news site, Restaurant Business, Hy-Vee was still Wahlburgers biggest franchisee at the beginning of this month, with the burger joints in 79 of Hy-Vees more than 240 retail locations.
“The closures will erase a huge chunk of the burger chain created by celebrity brothers Mark, Donnie and Paul Wahlberg,” Restaurant Business reported. “As of the end of 2023, Wahlburgers had 109 locations, according to Technomic data.”
Wahlburgers CEO Randy Sharpe told the news site that Hy-Vee getting out of the burger-franchise business will leave Wahlburgers with “about 40 locations nationwide.” That includes the Mall of America location, which Wahlburgers will take over.
Even though Hy-Vee was by far the largest owner and operator of Wahlburgers, Sharpe said its sales only accounted for a small amount of the chain’s overall sales. He said that in future, Wahlburgers will concentrate on opening full-service restaurants.
“We are growing restaurants,” Sharpe told Restaurant Business. “We’re not going to be in the grocery business.”
In its news release on Tuesday, Hy-Vee said, “Transition will happen across Hy-Vee’s region in phases starting this week. After the transition, Hy-Vee will have a total of 221 Market Grille and Market Grille Express locations across the Midwest.”
