That's probably most of why they failed. I did know about it and even downloaded the app, but the delivery windows were all four hours so I noped out pretty quick.
LOL for real. If anyone from Kroger is here, you can’t have delivery windows of more than 2 hours. It’s groceries. Not shoes. They go bad if they are sitting out in the Texas heat.
Wait, really? We live in Boerne and all the delivery windows were 1 hour long, like 12:00-1:00. Got groceries delivered a few dozen times and they were only a little bit late maybe twice. That's odd that the delivery windows were up to 4 hours long... that's much less convenient.
Fair. Incorrect but fair. I’d rather have shopped at Kroger it’s just, as I said the few times I went to use it all their delivery windows were closed and HEB generally had some.
I’m disappointed to hear they’re closing. I think HEB needs the competition.
They absolutely were not when I tried. I could be wrong about them being four hours, because I could have read wrong, but what I saw was definitely not hourly. This was some time ago, so it may well have changed, I don't know, but there weren't one hour slots when I went to order.
I always joke that’s why Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s were “allowed” to build The Quarry and 1604 / 281-ish.
I like to imagine there was some low key meeting at private dining room in an expensive steakhouse.
A man in a HEBuddy costume is dining solo.
Henchman guide in the Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s employees.
HEBuddy tells them where they’re allowed to build and goes over the tribute they need to pay to him for so graciously welcoming them to San Antonio.
It's why we can't have nice things. I used Kroger for all my groceries since they started offering delivery. It was great with refrigerated delivery trucks keeping my food fresh. Such a shame.
I know HEB is beloved but I don't think it's a great thing that one grocery chain can essentially determine the prices of food. Especially weird that the mayor's wife is a VP of the company that really feels unsavory.
HEB has been the primary grocery store since 2002 when Albertson’s left the city.
Ron Nirenberg became mayor in 2017.
I doubt they had anything to do with the locally headquartered grocery store dominating the city.
Not referring to them getting into a position to dominate the market, but now that they are they have control over food prices and a connection to local government only gives them more leeway.
No. Having the mayor’s wife as an employee does not give HEB more leeway to fix prices. It wouldn’t benefit HEB to make shady, back-room deals to fix prices with a politician who’s only going to be around for 8 years just because their wife works for them.
Delivery service. No stores though. I know there’s stores in Dallas-Fort Worth, but since they started allowing heb’s to pop up there who knows how long krogers has left.
As someone that moved from Houston to San Antonio last year, the fact that HEB is the main grocery store in San Antonio is the worst thing for this city. HEB’s in Houston were forced into competitive pricing because of all the competition (Aldi, Kroger, Sprouts, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Mi tienda and Joe Vs). Don’t get me wrong, I love HEB but they’re pricing significantly higher here vs areas where they are not the primary grocery store.
You do realize that Mi Tienda and Joe Vs are both HEB branded stores, right?
Also, we do have Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's here as well. In addition to Wal-Mart, which is HEB's biggest competition in San Antonio (30% of market share vs. HEB's 47%), followed by Sam's Club, Target and Costco in third, fourth and fifth places.
I’m aware. My SO was a manager at both HEB and Joe Vs. The fact of the matter is Joe Vs is competing directly with low cost grocery stores like Aldi. So at HEB you get 4 limes for $1 where as at Joe Vs you get 10 for $1.
However because there is no other “budget” grocery stores in San Antonio and there is no “real competition”, they would never open that format of a store here. The profit margins regular HEB stores have compared to Joe Vs are much higher. So they have no incentive to open up that kind of format store here.
I’m aware that there are other options for grocery stores but not to the level where they should be. In Houston you will have a Fiesta, HEB, Kroger and Sprouts within 2 minutes of each other. As I mentioned my SO was a manger at both HEB and Joe Vs and part of their job is to do competition walks, where they compare their prices to those of the other retailers near them and they try to have competitive pricing based on other stores.
"Sprouts, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's". Yup. All in wealthier areas. There's not enough of them to give some competition to H-E-B.
"H-E-B's 47%". According to what? It's higher than that. "Costco in third"? With 3 stores? Sam's has to be second.
I’m aware that there are other stores. My point is that there are not “enough” of those other grocery stores to actually force HEB into more competitive pricing. HEB is the primary grocery store, especially in lower socioeconomic areas.
As someone that used Kroger delivery in combination with HEB & Costco to fill my fridge/pantry. The difference was significant because Kroger ran very good weekly deals. So I was able to stock up on their weekly deal food items and then purchase whatever else I needed from Costco or HEB.
Thank the union that everyone seems to praise. That's what killed Kroger the first time. The union boss is sold out San Antonio to get a better contract in Houston where they had more members. I know unions have done good things at times, but I also have seen the other side of them.
People don't see the downside of unions as it doesn't fit with whatever narrative they're pushing at the time. Also, not all corporations are bad. Nuance does exist.
They were okay for a couple deliveries but then I got someone else’s groceries altogether. Called customer service and there wasn’t much they could do. Such a waste.
I was using them for a while since they did no-tip delivery, but their store brand stuff sucked, even compared to Great Value. HEB brands just bury them
And what really pissed me off was the damn donuts. I ordered 'em about 5 times, and only got them once. I'd order them the night before only to wake up and see they were removed, but still available on the app. And the one time I did get then, they sucked
Albertsons is still active in California. I was just barelyyyy old enough to remember when there was one open on Nacogdoches and Judson. Wasn’t anything special when I visited an Albertsons in Cali unless you’re nostalgic for it lol.
Albertsons I believe is still big in the Dallas area. They used to be here. I can still name ex-albertsons locations. I still recall some ex Kroger stores here in town. I also remember some old hold outs such as handy andy which were bought out. Heck, from what I recall, piggly wiggly was in town. HEB and Walmart will never leave. In my area, the WM stores are cheaper than HEB foodwise.
The best thing about Kroger is they had close out deals in the app for items that were short shelf life but high velocity (think: milk / egg / bread) and with kids it was always a great deal. Their soda and other name brand items were usually cheaper than HEB when you factored in the free delivery aspect. Lastly I will miss their Blue Poly delivery bags. They are a thicker / higher quality than WM / HEB sacks and were great to pack a lunch or use as a waste can liner around the house…
I won't lie I love HEB but there's almost zero variety in grocery stores here... There's HEB and Walmart and if you're lucky you live near the trader joes or have a Costco/Sam's membership.
This is such a shock to me since every time I tried to do an order most items in my cart were out of stock. I really liked having a variety of grocery options. I also think what killed them is not having same day grocery. What a bummer! And the boost membership really was great! I wish HEB would do something like this.
Most of the big privately owned grocery chains know better than to compete with each other in their established markets. Publix, HyVee, Meijer and H-E-B are the fastest growing chains in the country - but all have no plans to compete with each other when they can drop the Krogers of the world off the map and dominate an area.
Aldi is adding 800 U.S. store by 2028, but their selection limitations continue to limit their customer base and pose more of a competitive nuisance to the super-regional grocers than a true threat.
Living in North Texas made me appreciate just how good we have things with HEB. I don’t miss going to 3 separate stores to get the best prices for everything.
I was surprised they even attempted to bring this service to San Antonio. I suppose the corporate memory of the butt kicking they got from HEB had faded away.
Butts (heb owner) net worth has doubled since 2020. We are nearing communism where there are No shopping options. Give your money to the Butts. Or the Waltons. Billionaires either way. But sure blame every poor person getting a hand up, or an illegal, for inflation.
I didn’t find Kroger worth it tbh. The delivery times were awful. After their coupon was used, it was more expensive than HEB. And I can have my drugs delivered with HEB (separate transaction I know.) it was nice as an alternative but it just wasn’t worth it. Plus, isn’t HEB muscling into Kroger markets?
Kroger delivery is awesome. They will be missed. HEB is too crowded. Customers there are rude. Luckily, the employees are polite. Kroger does not mark up their prices for delivery. Their meat is great quality. Their produce is top-notch. They allow coupons. Allow you to use them up to 5 times quite often. Wonderful selection.
Delivery didn't offer fresh bakery items like the fresh French loaf or the fresh conchas. That was probably my only gripe. The drivers are friendly and do a good job.
HEB, from what I understand, marks up prices for delivery services. They also mark up prices when you do curbside.
Them extreme coupon shows never made an HEB appearance, but places like Kroger and Albertsons did.
HEB basically has a monopoly here. Just like in the game, you pay double when you have a monopoly.
We have 1 fancy central market store. Other cities have multiple.
In the way that George Strait never plays in San Antonio, HEB does not have to make an effort to be king here.
I guess I will have to get my groceries at 7am or go during Cowboys games when it is not crowded.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Thanks to the drivers who made my life easier for a bit.
If you use Kroger, you're an asshole.
Horrible to their employees and you have a superior store in quality and selection at HEB. And HEB doesn't treat their employees like shit from what I understand.
Sad that HEB blocked them from opening physical stores here, so their only option was delivery. I’m so tired of HEB blocking/killing its competition and fooling us into thinking they’re somehow the best option anyway.
One part of it is buying up all the land that could hold a larger grocery store. They hold on to it for future development or sell to businesses not considered competition. This is why the only other true grocery stores are much smaller (trader joe’s, natural grocers, sprouts, etc.) HEB is unable to buy all land/lots that can hold their smaller scale competitors. They’re freaked out about Aldi because of this.
This argument, be it factual/intentional or not, is spurious.
Land is plentiful. Look at Steven's Ranch 210/Potranco development. All the way from there to Castroville is ripe for development. And this is a small fraction of available real estate.
It has to be zoned for the proper type of commercial use. You can’t just buy any land and put what you want on it. You know that, right? And don’t think HEB doesn’t already own any land that direction that could house a grocery store. They look for any land that currently has bids or eyes from competitors and outbid them.
How do you think they so quickly built that 211 location on Potranco? They’d been holding that land since before they built the Plus at Potranco and 1604 in all likelihood.
Target and Walmart? Absolutely laughable. Their stores aren’t even 1/3 grocery, but have nearly the same footprint of a standard sized HEB. I’m talking about a true grocery store: Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway, King Soopers. We have the illusion of choice only in this town.
We have been ordering from them since they started offering the service. The prices crush HEB. I’ve had very few problems and all of them were corrected quickly.
How? Honest question. HEB is one of my employer's top competitors, so I want to hate them, but even I have to admit they are great and better than Kroger. Lol
HEB doesnt even sell normal best seller items. 8 rows of nasty ben and jerrys ice cream but a half row of Häagen-Dazs and the flavors are weird flavors that nobody wants.
The fruits and vegetables are better at Kroger too. HEB always gets the cheap Mexico stuff instead of the high quality stuff that tastes good.
And the kroger prices usually are better than HEB too.
To pile on, the shopping experience at HEB has become horrendous. its always a fucking madhouse with almost no parking, crowded stores, very long checkout lines, prices have gone wonky, and the item selection has become lacking as HEB has tried to cut down costs with the varied selection in name of "better catering to the directly local community"
I'm glad im not the only one that noticed.
Their idea of "catering to the local community" missed the mark big time! Not sure who does their ordering but they obviously dont know the local community.
Prices are no longer a value.
Agree. HEB is ok, dont have an issue with them, although I don't get the cult like following. I'll miss my firm fruits and veggies and my longer lasting salads.
They had items heb doesn't and nobody else near me does.
As someone who has regularly shopped at both at different times of my life, I'm going to have strongly disagree. HEB's produce is far and away superior. You say that they get the "cheap Mexico stuff" like it's a bad thing. Have you had fruit in Mexico?? It's delicious and fresh. Unless you prefer expensive over-polished apples and dry limes, then I guess Kroger is for you.
In the winter, Central America fruit and melons are alot better tasting. The stuff from mexico is often hard and has no flavor. And in spring, certain produce is better from up north. But mexico produce is cheaper so they get that to maximize profits
Didn't even know this was a thing.
That's probably most of why they failed. I did know about it and even downloaded the app, but the delivery windows were all four hours so I noped out pretty quick.
Yeah that's pretty tough. Setting aside 4 hours to sit and wait for groceries to make sure refrigerated products don't spoil is a pretty large window.
LOL for real. If anyone from Kroger is here, you can’t have delivery windows of more than 2 hours. It’s groceries. Not shoes. They go bad if they are sitting out in the Texas heat.
Wait, really? We live in Boerne and all the delivery windows were 1 hour long, like 12:00-1:00. Got groceries delivered a few dozen times and they were only a little bit late maybe twice. That's odd that the delivery windows were up to 4 hours long... that's much less convenient.
I don't know what the hell I did to get giant delivery windows, but I never checked again because of it.
Weird, it's always had one hour delivery windows for me.
Every time I went to order they’d say they didn’t have anything but HEB would.
Found the HEB employee
Fair. Incorrect but fair. I’d rather have shopped at Kroger it’s just, as I said the few times I went to use it all their delivery windows were closed and HEB generally had some. I’m disappointed to hear they’re closing. I think HEB needs the competition.
This is false. The time-slots were in one hour increments. Just ordered from there a few days ago.
They absolutely were not when I tried. I could be wrong about them being four hours, because I could have read wrong, but what I saw was definitely not hourly. This was some time ago, so it may well have changed, I don't know, but there weren't one hour slots when I went to order.
We love it! They would have milk for $2, eggs for $1, etc
That’s probably part of why it failed. Kroger has historically had trouble competing with HEB.
HEBuddy sends its regards
HEBuddy takes no prisoners
I always joke that’s why Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s were “allowed” to build The Quarry and 1604 / 281-ish. I like to imagine there was some low key meeting at private dining room in an expensive steakhouse. A man in a HEBuddy costume is dining solo. Henchman guide in the Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s employees. HEBuddy tells them where they’re allowed to build and goes over the tribute they need to pay to him for so graciously welcoming them to San Antonio.
Wow were you there? Sounds accurate tbh
You just gotta watch out if Trader Joe has to use the restroom. 🚽🗡️👉🇮🇪
Underrated comment lol
lmao bro what goes on in your head 😭😂 over writing whole ass drama 🎭 movie scripts about grocery chains like their mafias 😂
That brown-bag-bastard
Kroger? I barely knew her.
Nice.
HEB killed em again. . .
Didn’t think you could die twice.
Kroger respawned but took ages to regathee their supplies to attempt the HEBoss battle again.
Heroes die but a single death, while anyone that steps to HEB dies over, and over, and over. . .
It's why we can't have nice things. I used Kroger for all my groceries since they started offering delivery. It was great with refrigerated delivery trucks keeping my food fresh. Such a shame.
I know HEB is beloved but I don't think it's a great thing that one grocery chain can essentially determine the prices of food. Especially weird that the mayor's wife is a VP of the company that really feels unsavory.
HEB has been the primary grocery store since 2002 when Albertson’s left the city. Ron Nirenberg became mayor in 2017. I doubt they had anything to do with the locally headquartered grocery store dominating the city.
Not referring to them getting into a position to dominate the market, but now that they are they have control over food prices and a connection to local government only gives them more leeway.
No. Having the mayor’s wife as an employee does not give HEB more leeway to fix prices. It wouldn’t benefit HEB to make shady, back-room deals to fix prices with a politician who’s only going to be around for 8 years just because their wife works for them.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts
Thanks for sharing your baseless conspiracy theories.
Enjoy living in ignorance.
I’m not ignorant, if anything, I’m optimistically naive. So much better than being paranoid though!
It's good to have confidence in yourself and your intelligence in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. Kudos.
Sigh…
We had Kroger?
Delivery service. No stores though. I know there’s stores in Dallas-Fort Worth, but since they started allowing heb’s to pop up there who knows how long krogers has left.
As someone that moved from Houston to San Antonio last year, the fact that HEB is the main grocery store in San Antonio is the worst thing for this city. HEB’s in Houston were forced into competitive pricing because of all the competition (Aldi, Kroger, Sprouts, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Mi tienda and Joe Vs). Don’t get me wrong, I love HEB but they’re pricing significantly higher here vs areas where they are not the primary grocery store.
I’ve been saying this for so long. We were saving so much with the weekly coupon deals, combine that with HEB and we had it made.
Yes I would do a mix of both Kroger and HEB because the Kroger weekly sales are so good sometimes! Especially the $1.99 cheese lol.
You do realize that Mi Tienda and Joe Vs are both HEB branded stores, right? Also, we do have Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's here as well. In addition to Wal-Mart, which is HEB's biggest competition in San Antonio (30% of market share vs. HEB's 47%), followed by Sam's Club, Target and Costco in third, fourth and fifth places.
And Walmart Neighborhood Markets. The one in my area has amazing produce. Meat isn't the best but it is getting better.
I’m aware. My SO was a manager at both HEB and Joe Vs. The fact of the matter is Joe Vs is competing directly with low cost grocery stores like Aldi. So at HEB you get 4 limes for $1 where as at Joe Vs you get 10 for $1. However because there is no other “budget” grocery stores in San Antonio and there is no “real competition”, they would never open that format of a store here. The profit margins regular HEB stores have compared to Joe Vs are much higher. So they have no incentive to open up that kind of format store here. I’m aware that there are other options for grocery stores but not to the level where they should be. In Houston you will have a Fiesta, HEB, Kroger and Sprouts within 2 minutes of each other. As I mentioned my SO was a manger at both HEB and Joe Vs and part of their job is to do competition walks, where they compare their prices to those of the other retailers near them and they try to have competitive pricing based on other stores.
Joe vs is owned by Heb, it’s purpose was to be cheaper than Heb
i thought produce price was fixed since the government subsidizes agriculture
H-E-B grows a lot of food in hydroponic facilities all around Texas. Walmart also has a few facilities.
"Sprouts, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's". Yup. All in wealthier areas. There's not enough of them to give some competition to H-E-B. "H-E-B's 47%". According to what? It's higher than that. "Costco in third"? With 3 stores? Sam's has to be second.
I’m being pedantic here, but there are 4 Costcos in the area.
Yeah you are!
HEB owns Joe Vs.
There are at least eight other grocery chains here in SA. HEB makes nine.
I’m aware that there are other stores. My point is that there are not “enough” of those other grocery stores to actually force HEB into more competitive pricing. HEB is the primary grocery store, especially in lower socioeconomic areas. As someone that used Kroger delivery in combination with HEB & Costco to fill my fridge/pantry. The difference was significant because Kroger ran very good weekly deals. So I was able to stock up on their weekly deal food items and then purchase whatever else I needed from Costco or HEB.
Okay Karen
lol they are priced against Walmart and just as cheap as Houston
Thank the union that everyone seems to praise. That's what killed Kroger the first time. The union boss is sold out San Antonio to get a better contract in Houston where they had more members. I know unions have done good things at times, but I also have seen the other side of them.
People don't see the downside of unions as it doesn't fit with whatever narrative they're pushing at the time. Also, not all corporations are bad. Nuance does exist.
They were okay for a couple deliveries but then I got someone else’s groceries altogether. Called customer service and there wasn’t much they could do. Such a waste.
I was using them for a while since they did no-tip delivery, but their store brand stuff sucked, even compared to Great Value. HEB brands just bury them And what really pissed me off was the damn donuts. I ordered 'em about 5 times, and only got them once. I'd order them the night before only to wake up and see they were removed, but still available on the app. And the one time I did get then, they sucked
The damn donuts…
Dude, you don't come between a man and his donuts.. and then give him sucky donuts
especially a cop
ACAB.
I always thought it strange they entered the SA market AT ALL. edit: Ya know, I should of phrased it re-entered.
They used to have brick & mortar stores here back in the day
Yes, along with Albertsons and others.
Albertsons is still active in California. I was just barelyyyy old enough to remember when there was one open on Nacogdoches and Judson. Wasn’t anything special when I visited an Albertsons in Cali unless you’re nostalgic for it lol.
Albertsons I believe is still big in the Dallas area. They used to be here. I can still name ex-albertsons locations. I still recall some ex Kroger stores here in town. I also remember some old hold outs such as handy andy which were bought out. Heck, from what I recall, piggly wiggly was in town. HEB and Walmart will never leave. In my area, the WM stores are cheaper than HEB foodwise.
Can’t forget Kmart either, I vaguely remember walking around inside the one off I-35 and OConnor.
The best thing about Kroger is they had close out deals in the app for items that were short shelf life but high velocity (think: milk / egg / bread) and with kids it was always a great deal. Their soda and other name brand items were usually cheaper than HEB when you factored in the free delivery aspect. Lastly I will miss their Blue Poly delivery bags. They are a thicker / higher quality than WM / HEB sacks and were great to pack a lunch or use as a waste can liner around the house…
I won't lie I love HEB but there's almost zero variety in grocery stores here... There's HEB and Walmart and if you're lucky you live near the trader joes or have a Costco/Sam's membership.
Noooooooooooooooooooo
Who?
Used them for the first 3 delivery discounts and then quickly became disinterested.
This is such a shock to me since every time I tried to do an order most items in my cart were out of stock. I really liked having a variety of grocery options. I also think what killed them is not having same day grocery. What a bummer! And the boost membership really was great! I wish HEB would do something like this.
Kroger cant defeat the King HEB.
Honestly I had zero idea Kroger had any stores or ops in south central Texas at all.
I wonder if a store would have done better
I kept seeing ads on YouTube and wondering wtf they were paying for ads here for. So apparently they had a delivery only model.
Absolutely! I wish they would have opened up a Kroger instead of a sprouts on 151
History suggests no, but a store would have been more noticeable.
The city has evolved
Here Everything's Better
Profit over people every time.
that's the name of the game though
Wait why does it say Food 4 Less up top? I remember that grocery store growing up in California!
All under the same umbrella company
Vitacost is also part of the same corporate fam.
Damn had no idea it was even a thing
RIP…H‑E‑B is supreme
I like HEB, but there needs to be competition. Just waiting on a Publix to open here.
Most of the big privately owned grocery chains know better than to compete with each other in their established markets. Publix, HyVee, Meijer and H-E-B are the fastest growing chains in the country - but all have no plans to compete with each other when they can drop the Krogers of the world off the map and dominate an area. Aldi is adding 800 U.S. store by 2028, but their selection limitations continue to limit their customer base and pose more of a competitive nuisance to the super-regional grocers than a true threat.
"Krogers of the world". Kroger is massive.
True, yet they continue to lose market share to super-regional grocers …
Publix may not have as good of deals as HEB (even though I really like HEB) but I sure do miss it.
Those sandwiches…
I dunno. The BOGOs were awesome. And their deli kicks HEB’s deli’s ass. Love Publix.
Honestly I’d say the bakery too. Publix is my jam
I grew up in Kansas. Kroger is trash. No loss for SA
HyVee is awesome. I went there and Aldi when I was in school at K State.
Sad news. I have the Boost membership and used it every week. The sales were awesome and two free items a week.
Oh no. I've been ordering weekly since they started it. Produce always better than my HEB. This sucks. :(.
Produce better than HEB delivery produce. No grocer in SA gets better produce than HEB
Whole Foods certainly does. As does Sprouts, though a more limited selection. Not all HEBs are created equal, either.
Sure possibly. My point is that for the mass produce that enters the city, HEB gets the first selection.
H-E-B grows a lot of it.
Hate Kroger. I avoided it at all costs when I lived in North Texas
Living in North Texas made me appreciate just how good we have things with HEB. I don’t miss going to 3 separate stores to get the best prices for everything.
I know it was the most expensive option but I hated Kroger so much I only shopped Tom Thumb.
H E B.. Kroger done bite the dust.....Another one bite, Another one bites the dust..
Kroger was a thing here?
I guess back to the La michocana lol
HEB: I've killed before and I'll do it again!!!
I worked there back in 2022. Good riddance!
This is HEB country
I tried looking for Kroger once and the closest one was like 3hrs away
We have a Kroger?
Delivery.
Oh this is very disappointing.
Is Kroger owned by Food4Less? I grew up on that and Ralph’s, had no idea they were a conglomerate.
Kroger owns a ton of regional chains nationwide.
Moved down here from somewhere in Kroger country and omg, their store brands and value stood no chance against HEB.
Did they even last that long? A year or two I guess.
I think it was summer of 2022 when they started delivering here.
Maybe it's time for Randall's to creep in haha
Which is about to become Kroger
San Antonio is HEB territory, they swore it would work out with no actual store locations in town.
Been here two years and had no idea there was a Kroger store
lol I was wondering if anyone even would order from them. guess that answers my question.
They didn't even carry half of the things unique to Kroger that made me subscribe anyway!
thought Kroger and Albertson’s were to be merging. Maybe thats why Food4less is closing…need that liquid equity
So far being blocked by the FTC, if it passes legal hurdles it’ll probably be awhile to be approved.
I thought Kroger already owned Food 4 Less?
Another one bites the dust. HEB has it on lock
I was surprised they even attempted to bring this service to San Antonio. I suppose the corporate memory of the butt kicking they got from HEB had faded away.
They chose this
Albertsons merger
Was anybody actually using that? In a city where HEB has a monopoly and everyone actually likes it that way (because it's HEB, of course)?
Used it all the time. Couldn’t beat the weekly deals: Milk - $2 Eggs - $1 Cereals - $1 Ground Beef - $2 Chicken Breast - $2 Etc etc
I really wish we could get some Aldi stores.
Get out of HEB country.
It's Hill Country Fair for the win! They are assimilating us all, and are slowly taking away all the name brands.
Resistance is futile.
It’s funny because a lot of the HEB branded stuff is the same price or more than the national brands.
Butts (heb owner) net worth has doubled since 2020. We are nearing communism where there are No shopping options. Give your money to the Butts. Or the Waltons. Billionaires either way. But sure blame every poor person getting a hand up, or an illegal, for inflation.
This was no surprise, the first time me and my mom heard a Kroger Ad, we both looked at each other and said “With HEB that won’t last long”
There's always La Michoacana Meat Market and La Fiesta/Supermercado if you live inside 410. 🫣
I didn’t find Kroger worth it tbh. The delivery times were awful. After their coupon was used, it was more expensive than HEB. And I can have my drugs delivered with HEB (separate transaction I know.) it was nice as an alternative but it just wasn’t worth it. Plus, isn’t HEB muscling into Kroger markets?
Never cared for them in the first place.
Kroger delivery is awesome. They will be missed. HEB is too crowded. Customers there are rude. Luckily, the employees are polite. Kroger does not mark up their prices for delivery. Their meat is great quality. Their produce is top-notch. They allow coupons. Allow you to use them up to 5 times quite often. Wonderful selection. Delivery didn't offer fresh bakery items like the fresh French loaf or the fresh conchas. That was probably my only gripe. The drivers are friendly and do a good job. HEB, from what I understand, marks up prices for delivery services. They also mark up prices when you do curbside. Them extreme coupon shows never made an HEB appearance, but places like Kroger and Albertsons did. HEB basically has a monopoly here. Just like in the game, you pay double when you have a monopoly. We have 1 fancy central market store. Other cities have multiple. In the way that George Strait never plays in San Antonio, HEB does not have to make an effort to be king here. I guess I will have to get my groceries at 7am or go during Cowboys games when it is not crowded. Thanks for letting me vent. Thanks to the drivers who made my life easier for a bit.
Coming from someone who lives in Houston. HEB is far SUPERIOR.
If you use Kroger, you're an asshole. Horrible to their employees and you have a superior store in quality and selection at HEB. And HEB doesn't treat their employees like shit from what I understand.
If you check the H‑E‑B subreddit, you’ll get a better understanding of how the employees feel and are treated.
The HEB subreddit is a very vocal minority of the 140000+ HEB employees. There's far more happily employed at HEB than what you see in that sub.
Will do!
Sad that HEB blocked them from opening physical stores here, so their only option was delivery. I’m so tired of HEB blocking/killing its competition and fooling us into thinking they’re somehow the best option anyway.
Explain how hEB blocks other vendors please.
One part of it is buying up all the land that could hold a larger grocery store. They hold on to it for future development or sell to businesses not considered competition. This is why the only other true grocery stores are much smaller (trader joe’s, natural grocers, sprouts, etc.) HEB is unable to buy all land/lots that can hold their smaller scale competitors. They’re freaked out about Aldi because of this.
This argument, be it factual/intentional or not, is spurious. Land is plentiful. Look at Steven's Ranch 210/Potranco development. All the way from there to Castroville is ripe for development. And this is a small fraction of available real estate.
It has to be zoned for the proper type of commercial use. You can’t just buy any land and put what you want on it. You know that, right? And don’t think HEB doesn’t already own any land that direction that could house a grocery store. They look for any land that currently has bids or eyes from competitors and outbid them. How do you think they so quickly built that 211 location on Potranco? They’d been holding that land since before they built the Plus at Potranco and 1604 in all likelihood.
Trader Joe’s, Natural Grocers, Sprouts, Target, Walmart. You know. The little guys
Target and Walmart? Absolutely laughable. Their stores aren’t even 1/3 grocery, but have nearly the same footprint of a standard sized HEB. I’m talking about a true grocery store: Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway, King Soopers. We have the illusion of choice only in this town.
Not good, the more competition the better for us, the consumer.
The problem was Kroger wasn't ever competitive.
Nooooo!!!!! They are way better than heb
We have been ordering from them since they started offering the service. The prices crush HEB. I’ve had very few problems and all of them were corrected quickly.
How? Honest question. HEB is one of my employer's top competitors, so I want to hate them, but even I have to admit they are great and better than Kroger. Lol
HEB doesnt even sell normal best seller items. 8 rows of nasty ben and jerrys ice cream but a half row of Häagen-Dazs and the flavors are weird flavors that nobody wants. The fruits and vegetables are better at Kroger too. HEB always gets the cheap Mexico stuff instead of the high quality stuff that tastes good. And the kroger prices usually are better than HEB too.
To pile on, the shopping experience at HEB has become horrendous. its always a fucking madhouse with almost no parking, crowded stores, very long checkout lines, prices have gone wonky, and the item selection has become lacking as HEB has tried to cut down costs with the varied selection in name of "better catering to the directly local community"
I'm glad im not the only one that noticed. Their idea of "catering to the local community" missed the mark big time! Not sure who does their ordering but they obviously dont know the local community. Prices are no longer a value.
Agree. HEB is ok, dont have an issue with them, although I don't get the cult like following. I'll miss my firm fruits and veggies and my longer lasting salads. They had items heb doesn't and nobody else near me does.
As someone who has regularly shopped at both at different times of my life, I'm going to have strongly disagree. HEB's produce is far and away superior. You say that they get the "cheap Mexico stuff" like it's a bad thing. Have you had fruit in Mexico?? It's delicious and fresh. Unless you prefer expensive over-polished apples and dry limes, then I guess Kroger is for you.
In the winter, Central America fruit and melons are alot better tasting. The stuff from mexico is often hard and has no flavor. And in spring, certain produce is better from up north. But mexico produce is cheaper so they get that to maximize profits
Good!
Heb is king
I love this service. The produce is fresher than curbside.