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Main Forums => The Mess Hall => Topic started by: just Warren on December 15, 2018, 04:50:55 PM

Title: Any Texans want to comment on this article about HEB stores?
Post by: just Warren on December 15, 2018, 04:50:55 PM
Does it really have a cult following? (https://www.eater.com/2018/12/11/18133776/heb-texas-origin-cult-following)

How is the food? Worth drivin' a passel of miles to get to one?
Title: Re: Any Texans want to comment on this article about HEB stores?
Post by: Fly320s on December 15, 2018, 07:10:13 PM
HEB is a good grocery store chain, but their offshoot, Central Market, really rocks.  If you are near a Central Market, go check it out, but I wouldn't make a special trip for it.

Central Market has tons of local produce, meats, and other products.  They also make excellent tortillas in a variety of flavors and you can usually get them while they are still warm.

I normally go to the Southlake location since that is close to my in-laws.

Other high points:

Large options of fruits and veggies
Awesome meat and fish selection
Very good beer and wine selection
Cheese, deli, sushi is good
Fresh food (take home meals) is really good.
They have an in-store cafe that makes good meals.  I really like their chicken tortilla soup.  Probably the best I've ever had.
A fenced outdoor eating area with a kid's playground.  Perfect for eating your meal while the kids run around.  The store also has free concerts on the weekend.
Lots of special events for things like Valentine's, Hatch chile season, Cinco de Mayo, etc.

Overall, I'm a big fan.  Sometimes when I fly into DFW my sister-in-law will bring me fresh tortillas and cheese dip for me to take home.  We NH people also import salsa and muffins.  We have the Central Market to NH smuggling operation all wrapped up.
Title: Re: Any Texans want to comment on this article about HEB stores?
Post by: RocketMan on December 25, 2018, 11:26:58 AM
The HEB in north Austin where I used to live was quite a nice grocery store.  Well laid out, quality meats and produce, good variety of seafood, and the prices weren't too bad.  Of course, this was around 2003, so a lot might have changed in the last 15 years.
Central Market was a favorite store of my then fiance, now wife.  We used to shop for German wines there.
Title: Re: Any Texans want to comment on this article about HEB stores?
Post by: KD5NRH on December 25, 2018, 06:32:13 PM
Their store brands are almost always (the exception is pretty much the sodas) on par with if not actually better than the national brands.  Prices vary, but especially if you watch for coupons, you can usually come out 15+% better than WalMart, and of course the quality is way beyond WM's.

Of note, if you don't have a Central Market nearby, but do have a regular HEB, they can often get CM products that they don't regularly carry with a few days' notice.

Plus, staff is generally friendlier and more efficient than WM or Brookshires, (Not quite to QuikTrip standards, but still much more pleasant to deal with than many retail staff.) and you can still get some help carrying the groceries out to the car if they're not too swamped at the moment.

OTOH, when it comes to effective shelf space utilization, they still fall to the same idiocy as other stores.  Case in point, an empty space for regular eggnog, next to an untouched, equal sized pile of fat-free "eggnog."  Same in the apple cider space.  No matter how many years of consistent data they see, (And every year, in spite of crazy markdowns from the $3.98 base price, some of the fat-free "eggnog" will be tossed at its sell-by date.) they still won't do the sensible thing of using the entire shelf for the real product that people actually buy and putting the crap in the sewer where it belongs.