3 days ago
H-E-B hype grows as North Texas welcomes more stores
They call it the H-E-B hype — and now, North Texas is getting more of a taste. The Texas-born grocery giant is rolling out more stores across the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
But it's not just about what's on the shelves that has made H-E-B so popular with Texans.
It's making its mark with something money can't buy: Heart.
H-E-B has become known for its large stores, loyal employees and customers, and the kind of excitement that inspires people to line up at 4 a.m. to be among the first inside a new location.
To understand the hype, CBS News Texas spoke with Juan-Carlos Ruck, executive vice president of H-E-B's North West Food Drug Retail Division.
"So between prices, freshness, and customer service, and this idea of great culture," Ruck said, "You can buy grapes anywhere or apples anywhere, but go ahead and find brisket queso the way we make brisket queso or salsa the way we make it."
H-E-B's roots are as Texan as its recipes. In 1905, Florence Thornton Butt opened a one-room grocery store in Kerrville with a $60 loan. When deadly floods recently hit that same community, H-E-B responded quickly.
"By now it's just instinct, let's go help people," Ruck said. "I'll be honest, if it had been another town miles away, it wouldn't have been the same. Our trucks would have been on the road."
Ruck said H-E-B has responded to hurricanes and other disasters, but this tragedy hit close to home.
"Here in DFW, I had a partner whose family passed away, and he was a partner from my Odessa store," Ruck said. "What we found and what we realized was that we had people impacted across H-E-B land, and we paid for funerals, we gave food to the families."
The company donated $5 million to flood relief efforts, with $2 million going directly to Kerrville, the town where H-E-B began.
"When disaster happens, we don't just write an email and ask for a budget and how much we can spend," Ruck said. "We just go act and know that you're doing the right thing."
That same commitment to service is behind H-E-B's growth. The company now operates more than 430 stores across Texas and Mexico. Over the last decade, it has planted roots in North Texas, with 14 stores open across DFW—including a new location in Prosper that opened this week.
"It's not every day you look up to an area of the state and know 8 million people are waiting for an H-E-B," Ruck said. "So it's a nice business opportunity."
Seven more stores are on the way, with land already purchased in Dallas and Sherman.
As for expanding outside the state, Ruck said it's not likely anytime soon.
"You know that's the million-dollar question," he said. "Here's what I'll say—it took us 120 years just to get in DFW. It might take us quite a bit of time to handle the growth here and elsewhere, so you don't have to worry about any betrayal."
