HEB announces downtown store and $100M investment around it..finally. (Howe: shop, delivery)

[pr57001]

Say what you want about the plans, but calling a 10,000 foot store nothing more than a glorified gas station seems like a stretch. The Trader Joe's in the Quarry is 11,000 feet and it can fit more than packaged sandwiches.

[Merovee]

Originally Posted by pr57001

Say what you want about the plans, but calling a 10,000 foot store nothing more than a glorified gas station seems like a stretch. The Trader Joe's in the Quarry is 11,000 feet and it can fit more than packaged sandwiches.

The TJ's prepared food counter is rather small and is manned by one person. Will the Downtown-B have a bigger lunch counter? If so that could eat up space quickly but you are right, 10,0000 square feet would not be considered a convenience store.

How many square feet was the old Pik Nik Downtown? It is starting to sound a lot like that...

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by Merovee

The TJ's prepared food counter is rather small and is manned by one person. Will the Downtown-B have a bigger lunch counter? If so that could eat up space quickly but you are right, 10,0000 square feet would not be considered a convenience store.
..

I don't have the sketch handy, but it was posted on here before. A significant chunk of the 10,000 square feet will be devoted to prepared foods/lunch counter and a sitting area. The original diagram had all of 6 sets of shelves (note, not long aisles, just shelving units). So no, it's nowhere near the layout of TJ's. If you cut out maybe half of TJ's shelves, fill it with prepared foods and a dining area, that's what HEB is proposing. From the initial diagram, well over half of the space was devoted to this. If they removed the dining area entirely (maybe put it outside, in the shade), cut the prepared foods down by half, I'd be more inclined to call it a "grocery" store. Even the downtown Walgreens has more food shelves than what HEB proposed.

[staunchcharacter]

Originally Posted by Chaka

I don't have the sketch handy, but it was posted on here before. A significant chunk of the 10,000 square feet will be devoted to prepared foods/lunch counter and a sitting area. The original diagram had all of 6 sets of shelves (note, not long aisles, just shelving units). So no, it's nowhere near the layout of TJ's. If you cut out maybe half of TJ's shelves, fill it with prepared foods and a dining area, that's what HEB is proposing. From the initial diagram, well over half of the space was devoted to this. If they removed the dining area entirely (maybe put it outside, in the shade), cut the prepared foods down by half, I'd be more inclined to call it a "grocery" store. Even the downtown Walgreens has more food shelves than what HEB proposed.

Yup, what Chaka said...

Look at the mock up that HEB has presented. It's a glorified Tiger Mart, with almost all pre-prepped food and very little fresh produce (if any). TJs offers a lot more diversity in its equal space than what HEB is proposing for Downtown

[TXStrat]

The entire 10MB proposal can be found here. (PDF Format)

Quick sketch below:

[rynetwo]

That actually looks really similar to TJ shelf space wise.

[Chaka]

Look at the picture just before that

p 27 of the proposal. Take out all the dining/prepared foods, and then it looks similar to TJ.

[TXStrat]

Originally Posted by Chaka

Look at the picture just before that

p 27 of the proposal. Take out all the dining/prepared foods, and then it looks similar to TJ.

I think this is the picture you are referring to:

[Chaka]

yes thanks. There is indeed a lot more grocery space added in this newer layout. So it's promising, still not on a par with the layout of TJ, but I'm not sure I'd call it a grocery store. They are calling it a "European style" store, but having lived in a few European countries, that's a stretch.

[TXStrat]

Originally Posted by Chaka

yes thanks. There is indeed a lot more grocery space added in this newer layout. So it's promising, still not on a par with the layout of TJ, but I'm not sure I'd call it a grocery store. They are calling it a "European style" store, but having lived in a few European countries, that's a stretch.

It is a bit larger that the average Spar stores I recall from the UK and Germany. The layout reminds me more of the urban Tesco and Asda stores found in the larger urban centers o fmajor cities in the UK. I agree, it is a bit short of a full service grocery store, but it is a start to provide shopping in the area to make things walkable/bikeable.