H-E-B - Why They're Successful

This video examines how the Texas-based grocery store H-E-B has been so successful.

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[kamoramo]

During the big freeze, back in the winter of 2020-2021, the power went out at an HEB filled with customers at checkout waiting to pay and get home. They just let all the customers go with whatever groceries they had, no payment needed. HEB consistently has the community's back, I've never seen a business with so much good will and I've never had such strong positive feelings for any commercial entity. Plus their branded products are actually pretty good.

[iconoclastic-fantastic]

One time when I was buying coffee at HEB, they were out of the smaller canister of HEB brand Colombian coffee and only had the big ass, more expensive canister. A store manager happened to be in the aisle & asked if I found what I was looking for- admitted that I was hoping for the smaller canister that I could afford. He hand wrote a coupon code on a piece of paper that I could bring to the register & get the big canister for half off. Literally meant to whole world to me at the time & I still think about it! HEB is the only grocery store for me

[travis]

HEB donated $10, 000, 000 to help build a new school after the Uvalde shooting. During Harvey, they kept all but one store open at various times during the hurricane. The one that was closed was flooded. They also were bringing truck drivers in by helicopter and making sure to keep their stores stocked with basics. Some stores only run by a single employee. They were also some of the first on site with free food and water. HEB really truly does care about Texas and its people. On top of that, they're a fantastic grocery store.

[muddledmess]

I've lived in Texas for 38 of my 43 years, and I can attest, everyone here loves H-E-B. No other grocery store stands a chance. No one considers their brand products lesser than or inferior either. They offer so many on the shelf coupons that give away so much free stuff, it's incredible. "Buy these hotdogs, and get a free pack of buns and a bottle of Whataburger ketchup." Honestly, H-E-B is the shit. No lie.

[spencercarruth]

Fun fact: H‑E‑B has an emergency response team that they send to areas in Texas that are devastated by natural disasters, where they then help out by passing out supplies and food to those impacted. This was recently seen in 2017 when Hurricane Harvey struck the coast of Texas.

H‑E‑B has a *considerable* amount of goodwill in Texas….and I’ve never quite seen anything like it anywhere else!

[siamimam]

During Hurricane Harvey, we needed 18-wheelers to transport 300 pallets of donated goods to PORT ARTHUR. We emailed every company and HEB and Titos were the only ones that offered us those Trucks. ❤

[bwetwy]

As someone with a parent retired from H-E-B, a few notes:

- Just noting that the Pantry locations generally didn't close down, they just changed their name to drop the 'Pantry' moniker and modified their inventory to match a typical store.

- This isn't well-known, but good part of their profits come from land ownership and leasing. Find basically any H-E-B store and all of the land in its connected parking lot is owned by the company and the buildings are leased out to all of the other businesses in the area. They use a separate holding company for real estate. This is why it's rare to see an H-E-B take over an existing storefront as they're usually built in new locations that include the land.

- Someone else mentioned this already, but H-E-B engenders an enormous amount of good will with their emergency response and disaster relief across the southern U.S. (not just in Texas, and not just due to hurricanes), providing multiple truckloads of free food, water, and shelter to areas where disaster has occurred. A simple search about disaster relief should provide hundreds of relevant articles.

- The store-brand products are actually really good quality and are basically always cheaper. As someone that once stocked items ages ago, I can tell you that the store-brand products are often made in the same factories as name-brand products and are just given a different label, as evidenced by shipping receipts and label or case misprints that I've personally encountered.

- A *lot* of the fresh meat and produce sold at H-E-B is actually produced in Texas.

- All employees *and retirees* receive something called "Partner Perks", which includes occasional free items and a flat 10% discount on *all* store-brand products (ex. H-E-B, Hill Country Fare, Central Market, etc.). There are often further discounts around holidays that raise that to a 25% discount - there's actually a campaign going on right now for extra July 4th savings. This has been especially significant given the rising cost of groceries in recent years.

- Creamy Creations is better than Blue Bell - fight me.

[AndreaHernandez-jnrv]

My dad worked for H‑E‑B for 25 years- I grew up with great health insurance, discounted groceries, and my dad literally had his life saved because of H‑E‑B. This company is the biggest thing that makes me proud to be a Texan.

[EveningOfficer]

I went to college in Lubbock, Texas, and there was no H-E-B in town at the time. So the students who grew up in Texas would receive “care packages” from their parents containing various H-E-B brand products. I got one every few weeks from my parents containing HEB brand cereal, chips, and other snacks.

Native Texans find it difficult to survive without a nearby HEB 😅

[felixluevano]

Hi, as a Mexican in Monterrey, i can tell you that HEB here is also an institution, people love HEB, not only because of the "Texas" element, but the quality is better than national stores. As well as the partnership of local sports, just as with the Spurs, Tigres and Rayados, and for a time Sultanes, where HEB sponsored. So just as it is Texan, HEB is also Northern Mexican.

[abluntuser]

I have worked for HEB's grocery stores for 5 years as a cashier.

Honestly they have treated me well. They allowed me flexibly in my scheduling while I was in college, no questions asked. We have a "partners perks" where we get 10% of any HEB products, and there's lots of times during the year where we get bonuses so we'll randomly get a few extra hundred dollars just for being employees. We also get weekly perks or monthly deals as employees and sometimes the 10% off I mentioned earlier turns into 25% off during certain holiday seasons.
I even worked there during the COVID-19 pandemic when it started in spring of 2020, and they worked with me through everything, and let me take extended days off when I couldn't handle the stress, no penalty.

If I didn't already have plans to move out of Texas, then I would have seriously considered doing corporate work for them in my career since I'm already a partner with them, because those benefits are looking real good...they really are a great company to work for in comparison to a lot of other places.

[Atlas_Enderium]

I’ve lived in Texas my whole life, so HEB was just what I considered a “normal” grocery store. It wasn’t until I started going out of state and visiting elsewhere that I realized HEB was so great 😂

[ViburaBlanca]

As a native Texan, HEB is my primary grocery store. Theres 2 HEB pluses within 8 mins of me, and two more within 20 mins of me.

They have the best meat, cheeses, seafood, etc that other grocery stores really struggle at. Kroger sucks, Walmart Wholesale like Costco and Sams in my area are packed, but the only other competitor imo is Target.

I’ll finish by saying HEB is a staple in our household, and I’m proud Company Man is giving HEB the recognition they deserve.

[benjamindanielsen]

As a lifelong Texan, this episode was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

[Zaffre_ENTMT]

I'm not Texan, but I'm Mexican... Specifically from Monterrey, where HEB Mexico's HQ is based on.
We consider HEB to be a relatively high-end store, mainly because of the imported goods taxes, as that really takes a big chunk of the price here. As other comments have said, it's really impressive how competitive their in-house/"off brand" products are, and because they also have days where produce (fruits and veggies) are cheaper than in other days (a shockingly common practice here between supermarkets), a whole lot of people really like to buy stuff from them.
Arguably the biggest reason why we also like HEB is, probably, because we are quite similar to Texas in the sense that we *LOVE* BBQing in the weekends for any reason, almost throughout the whole year. The market is quite comparable in these two seemingly different but relatively similar places.

[JD-iurv]

I work for HEB and their benefits are amazing. No joke they gave us a $100 today for their partner appreciation month

[ThatKidPro]

A reason for H-E-B’s success that can’t be understated is their own brand products. Their brand products are usually cheaper than the name brand while also being generally better/more quality. Their creamy creations ice cream is probably my favorite store bought ice cream.

[MattyBDontRapActually]

They donated funds to my family during a hurricane when our home suffered a lot of damage. My mom has worked their for 15+ years & they've helped our family so much over the years. I've got nothing but gratitude & respect for HEB.

[Fact_core]

I remember being a kid and the cashier giving me tickets to play in a machine where you could win tickets. This is why I love h.e.b

[ALCPEREZ]

HEB was my first job, I was 16, and loved working there. Now I live just across the highway from "The Battery" a huge HEB distribution center full of HEB trucks going in and out at all hours. When the pandemic hit, shopping was rough, and I was caught totally off guard. The lines to check out wrapped all around the store. Within a week we had basic essentials, and food available, we wanted for nothing except stuff other companies weren't producing due to shut down. Thank God for HEB.