H-E-B officials broke ground on a store in the Alliance area of Fort Worth on Nov. 16. Construction is slated to start in April 2023, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Work is slated to end in December 2023. H-E-B plans on opening the Alliance location in “the first half of 2024,” according to Juan-Carlos Rück, who is the executive vice president of the H-E-B Northwest Food and Drug Division as well as a Southlake resident.
While having the H-E-B logo on a building in Tarrant County is new, the San Antonio-based company has been in the market for more than 20 years under the name of Central Market, the chain’s gourmet grocery store.
The Central Market location at 4651 W. Freeway in Fort Worth was the first to arrive, opening in 2001. Five years later, the location in Southlake, at 1425 E. Southlake Blvd., opened. There are now six Central Markets in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.
“About this time last year we announced [Frisco] plans to join our Central Market family in North Texas, and we have been greeted with so much enthusiasm,” said Mabrie Jackson, senior director of public affairs for H-E-B, during the groundbreaking for H-E-B Alliance. “In just the last few years we have given to over 275 nonprofits in Tarrant County. We’ve been here, and we continue to grow, and we look forward to making sure that we share our blessings with the community going forward.”
Rück said many of the amenities planned for the H-E-B Alliance store, such as chef-inspired meals to-go, fresh sushi and a bakery department that sells fresh tortillas, are already available at Central Market.
“[Central Market] is a very upscale brand, and for a community like this, it is a good fit,” said Mark Guilbert, president of the Southlake Chamber of Commerce. “There are a lot of options for goods and services, so being able to differentiate yourself as an upscale brand with high service is very important for sustainability. Especially in a community that is affluent like Southlake.”
The arrival of H-E-B in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, along with an October announcement of a merger between two other major grocery store players, Kroger and Albertsons, are just the most recent developments in a changing landscape for shoppers in the metroplex.
Kroger and Albertsons officials confirmed their merger Oct. 14. It is planned that Kroger will acquire all of the shares of stock and properties of Albertsons for $24.6 billion by 2024, according to a news release. This includes Dallas-area affiliate Tom Thumb stores with a location in Grapevine and a Market Street location in Colleyville.
“Albertsons Cos. brings a complementary footprint and operates in several parts of the country with very few or no Kroger stores,” said Rodney McMullen, chair and CEO of the combined company, in the news release.
Kroger in the past year has renovated stores in the metroplex, opened an automated fulfillment center in Dallas and implemented hiring initiatives.
However, Kroger is not the only major grocer to implement changes over the past year; Walmart, too, has completed store renovations and rolled out a new subscription service.
Renovating for shopping trends
In the past year, Kroger and Walmart have held grand reopenings for grocery stores throughout the metroplex after renovations that included increasing general aesthetics and catering to the shopping demands of the post-pandemic customer.
Tom Thumb and Target are among the grocers joining Walmart and Kroger in changing the look of stores.
The Grapevine Walmart at 1601 W. Hwy. 114 has had nearly $5 million in renovations since 2021, according to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filings. The Walmart Neighborhood Market at 4904 Colleyville Blvd., Colleyville, was one of 50 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth market that is had remodeling done in 2022, according to a Walmart press release. A grand opening was held in June for this location.
Walmart remodels include more self-checkouts lanes, pickup and delivery area improvements, and touch-free checkout options.
U.S. Census Bureau data from August 2020 shows, during the pandemic, online shopping increased. Data shows this shopping sector experienced an estimated 10 years of growth within three months.
“Because people didn’t have a lot of options for shopping, online methods were a more approachable way to continue shopping while they didn’t have any flexibility to shop during the lockdown,” said Kiseol Yang, a professor and digital retaining degree program coordinator at the University of North Texas.
Walmart experienced more online shopping during the pandemic, which persists today, according to Rissa Pittman, Walmart’s Dallas-Fort Worth market manager.
The demand for Walmart’s pickup and delivery services has led the company to increase its order fulfillment capacity by 40% over the last two years, according to Walmart’s Communications Director Lauren Willis.
“We’ve expanded a lot of things in that [online grocery] space as far as time slots and more availability in each time slot to handle more customers each hour,” Pittman said. “That’s been a huge shift in the shopping trend.”
John Votava, director of corporate affairs for Kroger, said the retailer sets out with a targeted list of stores in need of a refresh each year.
This year, Kroger did remodeling work at the Southlake location at 2100 E. Southlake Blvd., a $350,000 project, according to the TDLR.
“It is very important to our customers to see we are reinvesting in our stores and reinvesting in the community,” said Votava, who is a Tarrant County resident. “We pride ourselves on updating our store and keeping everything fresh.”
More competition
H-E-B joins a crowded market in the western part of the DFW area.
The Alliance location was the sixth announced store for H-E-B within the metroplex and the second in Tarrant County, joining the previously announced store in Mansfield.
H-E-B’s 128,650-square-foot building will be located at 3451 Heritage Trace Parkway, with a price tag of $24.9 million, according to the TDLR filing. The Frisco H-E-B location, which opened Sept. 21, was the first of six stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that are planned to open in the coming year. Each store will employ more than 700 positions with pay starting at $15 an hour, Jackson said.
Meanwhile, Kroger and Walmart announced new hiring initiatives to help attract employees during the holiday season “and beyond,” according to news releases. Kroger starting pay is $11.50 an hour, and Walmart’s is $13 an hour. Officials with both companies said they hope to compete against H-E-B for employees in ways besides pay.
In Grapevine, Colleyville and Southlake, shoppers have multiple existing grocery stores from which to choose.
“[Kroger has] been in North Texas for 65 years, and we plan on staying well beyond another 65 years,” Votava said. “We welcome the competition to the market. The consumer wins when they have more options.”
Colby Farr contributed to this report.
