Lack of grocery stores in Austin / suburbs (Houston, Dallas: living, price)

[atxcio]

Interesting thread... having lived here for a while, I can say that the grocery store options were much greater before. HEB has slowly and methodically sent all it's competition packing. At one time, there were Safeways (then Appletree, now Randalls here), Albertsons, Tom Thumb (had a great store at the Arboretum), Foodland, Fiesta, Fresh Plus and HEB. Now you will likely find only HEB and Randalls.

I have always thought HEB was the best, mostly for price but also it's wide variety of local and regional products... but whatever thier strategy, it has obviously worked. The carnage is evident from our own closest grocery store (Albertsons) which closed in October and will be an HEB in Feb... I'm looking forward to that, but for right now it is a major pain.

I'll take a wild guess that Trainwreck might be referring to the Randalls on William Cannon/Mopac vs. the HEB on Brodie/William Cannon (or the one near Escarpment?)... we figured we'd trek on to that HEB for our groceries, but are finding that we often go to the Randalls to avoid the crowd. Not what Randall's is aiming for, I'm sure...

[Trainwreck20]

Yup. those are the two stores I was referring to.

As far as my perspective, I can't compare cost very well between cities since I haven't done much grocery shopping elsewhere. There may be inherent differences that make groceries in general cheaper in Phoenix, not sure. Anyway, HEB historically has been the cheapest, with Albertson's running about the same prices. I think HEB operates pretty efficiently on the corporate side and it makes it difficult to compete on the same price basis.

I also think HEB has some of the friendlier employees. It is not that Randalls has been rude or anything, it just seems like most of the folks at HEB actually enjoy their job (or do a great job faking it).

[Mike78613]

Originally Posted by neddy

You should try the HEB plus off 2243 in Leander only takes my friends about 15mins to drive from GT to there for food.

Agreed! Its really close to hwy 29 coming south into Leander. That HEB Plus is really nice but food is marked little bit higher in price then the one in Cedar Park right off of hwy183 & 1431 though.

[xsloane]

I have posted a comment about this a while ago, but only got "I LOVE HEB" comments back LOL!
I am glad I am not the only one who feels like this around here.
My idea is that when you have a monopoly of any sort, well, you can do as you please, and that is so the case of HEB. Really, they have NO competion around since Randalls is more expensive in general (although their quality and sales are way better) and Whole Foods targets a different crowd.
I agree with the other post where they say that I would much rather have better prices in things we really need like cheese or milk than have a "Combo Loco" or things like that where if you buy something you need then they load you with all these other items that are unnecesary most of the time.
I look at the mailing for Randalls every week and if I find a good number of necessary items on sale for good prices then I drive there. Otherwise I get most things at Walmart and what I can't find there (or quality wise just makes no sense to buy there) I get at HEB.
They forgot to load two of my grocery bags in my cart once and twice I have gotten brown rice full of moth larvae!!
There is one thing I really like about HEB though!.... Well... No there is not.

[10scoachrick]

I guess I'll have to uproot our local Trader Joe's and bring it along when we move.

[mark311]

I'm one of those people that is perfectly happy with HEB. I normally frequent the one in Cedar Park on the corner of 1431 and Parmer which is a really nice store with a lot of Central Market product sections. I'm still in shock of how much cheaper it is than the California versions of Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and Ralphs.

The regular HEB prices on things like Healthy Choice frozen dinners, Yoplait yogurts, and Progresso soups are seriously 40% to 50% cheaper than just about any California grocery store (especially in the Bay area). The HEB 100% wheat bread has a great taste and it's cheap. I have no complaints about HEB.

[twange]

I will admit, I'm pretty bourgeois when it comes to groceries. Our HEB is fine, but it's pretty dreary and has the feel of a "cattle call"...very hectic and aggressive. I very much enjoy grocery shopping, so this sort of environment kind of spoils it a little Plus, I'm willing to pay a bit more for a better shopping experience and higher quality. Not for everything, but definitely for food.

Last weekend we painstakingly did a cost comparison between HEB and Central Market. Verdict? While HEB was far cheaper for certain things like fish and organic produce, all in all, for the stuff we buy, it was pretty comparable. In fact staples such as dairy, cereal, frozen items and many other items were the same, some even cheaper. The produce quality was significantly better but the organic stuff was very high priced. There were also many more choices across the cost scale. For example, while they had some very high-end expensive coffees, there were also plenty affordable, basic blends that were in the same range as HEB. For us, this is important as we like to have options on whether or not we can splurge and go for higher quality. If the budget is tight, we go for the "peasant blend", if we have a bit to spend, it's fancy fair-trade The organization was far superior to our HEB, the place was beautiful and had an open-market feel and I like the self weighing/label system that's set up for speedier checkout.

I understand that Central Market is owned by HEB(or is it the other way around?) and it is considered their "premium" model. I also understand that HEBs can vary greatly in terms of appearance and cleanliness. For us though, our HEB will become the place to go when we need something late or when we just need to grab a couple of things quick. I know that Central Markets are not as plentiful as HEBs, so that option may not be available to everyone.

*I might also add that we do not have children, so our grocery budget is much easier to maintain! I feel for y'all who have teenage boys

[achtungpv]

Originally Posted by twange

I understand that Central Market is owned by HEB(or is it the other way around?) and it is considered their "premium" model. I also understand that HEBs can vary greatly in terms of appearance and cleanliness. For us though, our HEB will become the place to go when we need something late or when we just need to grab a couple of things quick. I know that Central Markets are not as plentiful as HEBs, so that option may not be available to everyone.

*I might also add that we do not have children, so our grocery budget is much easier to maintain! I feel for y'all who have teenage boys

CM is owned by HEB. I worked at HEB in college. Mr Butt (real name) went to a supermarket expo in Europe and he toured stores in France and Italy and decided he wanted one just like those. Thus, CM was born.

We've found the same thing, CM prices are pretty much the same on common items with HEB. The CM private label items are extremely inexpensive for the quality. We shop there a lot.

I will say that the more traffic in a store the harder it is to keep up the appearance. Randalls always looks nice because no one is ever in there to get it dirty. When I worked at HEB we had a maintenance guy at all times walking each aisle with a broom from one end of the store to the other. Each aisle was swept at least every 30 minutes. With thousands of people coming in and out 24 hours a day, it's about impossible to keep anything looking pristine. Add to that dozens and dozens of people each day that open packages and drinks to taste test and then leave the open items on the shelf to later get knocked on the floor, kids puking, people littering like it's a highway, etc.

[sanmiguel]

Hey, why isn't anyone talking about Fiesta Market? Good prices, great selection of ethnic specialty foods and wonderful opportunity to polish one's Spanish skills. Me gusta mucho.

[twange]

Originally Posted by achtungpv

I will say that the more traffic in a store the harder it is to keep up the appearance. Randalls always looks nice because no one is ever in there to get it dirty. When I worked at HEB we had a maintenance guy at all times walking each aisle with a broom from one end of the store to the other. Each aisle was swept at least every 30 minutes. With thousands of people coming in and out 24 hours a day, it's about impossible to keep anything looking pristine. Add to that dozens and dozens of people each day that open packages and drinks to taste test and then leave the open items on the shelf to later get knocked on the floor, kids puking, people littering like it's a highway, etc.

That's a great point. I think the biggest thing for me is the design. High ceilings, better lighting, lower shelving, designated areas as opposed to row after row. We shopped at place similar back in Ohio and we've been trying to find something similar here. CM is even better...

That's gross about the taste test thing...I swear, some people are just barely above Amoebas.