Waco Economy and Job Market (Houston, San Antonio: grocer, stores, stats)

[GreenHunt]

Why does Texas only have one major grocery store? That is HEB which is on the same level as Winco or Walmart. Why no higher end food stores? In Washington State there are 4-6 different grocery store in cities over 50k.

[Raider Scott]

Chip and Joanna made Waco property pretty pricey! LOL


HEB is all we need. The other chains we have here in Houston are pitiful or ghetto.

[ChristieP]

If you think HEB is on the same level as Walmart, you need to take a second look. The high-end grocery stores (Whole Foods, HEB Central Market, even Tom Thumb) won’t come to Waco because the average household income isn’t high enough to fit their demographic profile.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by GreenHunt

Why does Texas only have one major grocery store? That is HEB which is on the same level as Winco or Walmart. Why no higher end food stores? In Washington State there are 4-6 different grocery store in cities over 50k.

What are you talking about?

Whole Foods was founded in and based in Austin

Costco is in all the major cities in TX. As is Trader Joe's and Aldi. In fact there is an Aldi in Waco.

HEB also has higher-end stores called Central Market in the larger cities that are pretty good.

And there are lots of Kroger grocery stores in Texas and of course Wal-Mart is everywhere.

The main reason why HEB is popular in some parts of Texas is because it just whips the competition in a lot of ways. I would shop at HEB over say Safeway any day.

I've lived in both WA and TX and haven't really noticed much difference. Washington has both Fred Meyer and QFC but they are both owned by Kroger so little difference. All the same generic foods are identical. WA has Safeway but they have declined since being bought out by some private equity firm. I would take HEB over these choices any day.

[TheOverdog]

Safeway used to be in Texas and they were terrible. IMO Texas metros generally have more and better grocery store options than anywhere else in the US.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

Safeway used to be in Texas and they were terrible. IMO Texas metros generally have more and better grocery store options than anywhere else in the US.

Nah. I like DC's options better (Wegman's, Giant) and I'm sure there are others that have better grocery options than Texas cities. Other than HEB, none of the other local full service stores (Kroger, Randall's, Tom Thumb, etc) are that great - basically all are on par with somewhere like Safeway imo.

With that said, HEB alone is better than most other grocery chains. The competitors just aren't all that good.

[TheOverdog]

Nah. I like DC's options better (Wegman's, Giant)

I googled a few of those stores, and they look like dumpy strip mall versions of Albertsons or whatever other average grocery store, or the 'small town version' of HEB. They wouldn't be able to compete in a major Texas metro.

[KathrynAragon]

We don't even HAVE HEB in the Tyler metro - we have Brookshires (not Brookshire Brothers). We also have some other specialty grocery stores like Natural Grocers and Sprouts and WalMart grocery stores (I hate Walmart - don't get me started). But I've always heard that there's a sort of informal agreement between Brookshires and HEB for HEB not to move into NE Texas. Who knows? Brookshires has their regional warehouse and headquarters here.

[brock2010]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

We don't even HAVE HEB in the Tyler metro - we have Brookshires (not Brookshire Brothers). We also have some other specialty grocery stores like Natural Grocers and Sprouts and WalMart grocery stores (I hate Walmart - don't get me started). But I've always heard that there's a sort of informal agreement between Brookshires and HEB for HEB not to move into NE Texas. Who knows? Brookshires has their regional warehouse and headquarters here.

Is Super 1 part of the Brookshires family?

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by brock2010

Is Super 1 part of the Brookshires family?

Yes. So is Fresh.

Brookshires and Brookshire Brothers are part of a bigger Brookshire family but they split many years ago. Decades ago from what I understand.