Reality crushes nostalgia; H-E-B ain't all that

Half a dozen years ago and more, I lived in a small town near Waco. H-E-B and Wally were the two groceries, and that Wally was small enough it had no frozen section and only a small refrigerated section.

In Waco, there were a couple of Albertson's but it was pretty much H-E-B territory.

Several years before that, I lived in a small town near College Station. It had H-E-B and maybe a grocery Wally, though I don't remember. Bryan-College Station had one Kroger that I know of, and am not sure what else besides H-E-B.

Well, having back then gone to Central Markets in the Metromess after they first opened, I had fond memories of H-E-B. And, with the company now in the Metromess with regular H-E-B stores, not just Central Market, I decided to both indulge nostalgia and do some actual shopping in Frisco.

Well, I'm also a more discerning grocery shopper than I was several years ago, including buying even more healthier food today, plus, I have a Winco in Denton as well as multiple Krogers. There's also Aldi, which may have been in Waco several years ago but was NOT in College Station several years before that.

And, per the header?  

H-E-B ain't it, to put it bluntly.

I had a pen in my back pocket and the receipt side paper from a check that I had been written for some freelance work to serve as note paper, and I took notes. (Let us note that I didn't see the Frisco store branded as an H-E-B+, but it was still plenty good, and the Kroger I hit most often in Denton, while decent to good, isn't at its highest level, either.)

Let's dive in.

In their house brand, thin spaghetti is the only whole wheat pasta H-E-B has. Kroger has penne, macaroni and rigatoni, and maybe lasagna. I think Winco has the first four.

H-E-B has no house brand of Triscuits. It also doesn't carry the Wasa Swedish crispbreads.

The wide "deli-style" bread? None of it had more than 3 grams of fiber. I can get 4-gram at Kroger, Winco and Aldi all three. Plus, sodium was 200 milligrams a slice; it's less at all three.

Deli cheese selection? Probably moderately better than my normal Kroger, modestly better than the south loop Kroger in Denton, but not hugely better. And, higher priced. 

Only a limited selection of Central Market Italian sodas, and only in the 750ml bottles, not individual cans. (They did have their premium flavored other specialty drinks, which are halfway between Italian sodas and sparkling water.)

Oh, and prices? 

Their bread is higher than Kroger's or Aldi's or Winco's. Whole wheat pasta was a draw. Brown rice was higher. "Folgers in a can" and house brand equivalents were higher. Cokes were higher.

On bulk foods? Their nutritional yeast is $2 a pound higher than Winco. I don't recall seeing bulk oatmeal, and am sure they don't have bulk steel-cut, let alone English porridge style oatmeal. Their bulk coffee does have a couple more varieties on roasts than Winco, while being at a higher price — but less than Central Market.

Premium sodas? Both higher priced and shorter selection, with the exception of me not recalling seeing Maine Root's blueberry soda elsewhere.

In addition, when I asked if they still used their points card, which isn't exactly like Kroger's shopper card? Call that "wasn't" instead of "isn't," because they don't. And, that too means less savings, speaking of prices. That includes that Kroger's shopper card offers fuel points. If I can, with one big fill-up a month, save 50-60 cents a gallon, that's another $12-$15 of savings.

Flip side is that shoppers cards do track your buying. OTOH, your credit or debit card info also tracks your buying, and so do H-E-B's in-store coupons. Sidebar to that? H-E-B seems to lean on "combo buys" (as in, buy these three items, save $5 or whatever) at least as much as Kroger. Maybe more.

Nostalgia has been cured, and even if H-E-B were to build in Denton itself, I wouldn't make it a regular part of my grocery shopping.

Nostalgia has been rationally examined and kicked to the curb. And, that old points card has been thrown in the trash.

You folks in Helltown, Austin, San Antone, etc., especially if you're H-E-B cultists applauding them moving north of I-20? (And, yes, it's one of Texas' three major retail cults, along with What? A Burger? and Fuck You the Beaver, which I haven't yet blogged about in detail. [Blue Bell, after its second listeria escapade, I think lost some of its cultiness even among the Tex-ass faithful.]) You should instead be begging for Winco to come SOUTH of I-20 to you.