By Kevin Williams
Regulars on my email list know that I used to be in the grocery business and that I maintain a fondness for supermarkets, especially the scrappy regional players, like Hannaford's in Maine. Another heavyweight, one I had always wanted to visit: H-E-B which operates 340 groceries in Texas. Basically, it's the only grocery game in town in Texas, especially central Texas and the Valley.
I didn't not know, until a friend in Texas told me, that H-E-B was someone's initials: Herbert E. Butt, to be exact. Herbert was the son of the grocery chain's founder, which first opened a store almost a century ago. A friend of mine that lives on the south side of Austin showed me his local H-E-B (which locals actually say H-E-B as opposed to HEB, they pronoune each letter).
One of the things he likes about H-E-B he says is that it doesnt have a store loyalty card that harvests information about what you are purchasing.
The store I visited was spacious, with a huge, cavernous produce section. Not surprisingly, there is a large selection of Tex-Mex and Latino foods. So, below are some photos from my visit to H-E-B, I can see why the store is so popular in Texas, it really seems to have its finger on the pulse of what people want.
An H-E-B on Brodie Lane in Austin, it is a great store!
Plenty of produce....
You don't generally find jackfruit in stores in the Midwest...
An olive bar....
These cookies are popular in Mexico, my friend describes them as basically "pure sugar"...had I not stuffed myself at the conference so much, I might have bought some...
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