Early H-E-B stores (before the 2000s)
Posted: 25 Nov 2012 14:19
Does anyone have any information on older H-E-B stores? Given that I'm only familiar with the Houston area H-E-B stores, I need help. From that, they first opened H-E-B Pantry Foods stores (small grocery stores 30,000 square feet) in suburban areas (mid-sized areas that weren't small towns but not huge--College Station, Bryan, Galveston, Spring) before opening full-line stores (first opened in Houston proper in 2001, apparently).
However, some of the older H-E-B stores I've seen in Waco and Corpus Christi were "gray box" H-E-B stores that have been repainted (one of them, I remember in Waco, had red-and-blue painted pipes). There's also an old specimen in Marlin, Texas from the 1960s, but it seems weird they would expand that way.
Apparently, at some point in the past (early 1990s), H-E-B consolidated most of its brands into not much more than the H-E-B brand, Central Market, and Hill Country Fare.
I'm also curious to how they're expanding their departments into a full "supercenter", which isn't quite to Meijer or Walmart levels yet. I know my H-E-B had a small video game department when it opened in 2002 (it was a 70k square feet, full-sized store), but apparently the first electronics started appearing in the early 1980s with some of the Futuremarkets. There's an "Apparel" department at the new largest H-E-B Plus in San Antonio but I don't know if carries any more than t-shirt (but it's a large T-shirt collection). The local H-E-B carries only a small selection of Aggie gear.
However, some of the older H-E-B stores I've seen in Waco and Corpus Christi were "gray box" H-E-B stores that have been repainted (one of them, I remember in Waco, had red-and-blue painted pipes). There's also an old specimen in Marlin, Texas from the 1960s, but it seems weird they would expand that way.
Apparently, at some point in the past (early 1990s), H-E-B consolidated most of its brands into not much more than the H-E-B brand, Central Market, and Hill Country Fare.
I'm also curious to how they're expanding their departments into a full "supercenter", which isn't quite to Meijer or Walmart levels yet. I know my H-E-B had a small video game department when it opened in 2002 (it was a 70k square feet, full-sized store), but apparently the first electronics started appearing in the early 1980s with some of the Futuremarkets. There's an "Apparel" department at the new largest H-E-B Plus in San Antonio but I don't know if carries any more than t-shirt (but it's a large T-shirt collection). The local H-E-B carries only a small selection of Aggie gear.