H-E-B continuing Texas expansion with upcoming Austin store

Dive Brief:

H-E-B announced Tuesday that the opening date of its first multi-level location in Austin, Texas, is slated for Feb. 15.
The new H-E-B store, which has been under construction since late 2019 and faced pandemic-related delays, will span 97,000 square feet and include a two-story porch with views of the city and the Lake Austin water reservoir on the Colorado River.
The Lake Austin store continues the grocer’s efforts to expand across Texas with new locations and to play with a variety of store formats.

Dive Insight:

The upcoming H-E-B store, located at 715 S. Exposition Blvd., will include two in-store restaurants — True Texas BBQ and SouthFlo Pizza — along with a coffee shop with breakfast tacos. The store will also have pickup and delivery services as well as a full-service pharmacy with drive-thru, according to the announcement.

The upcoming Austin store will have a variety of departments, from standard ones such as deli, bakery and meat and seafood counters to the grocer’s largest Dinner Tonight selection, which includes Meal Simple offerings and Cooking Connection demos, according to the announcement. The store also will have handmade sushi from Sushiya, a craft beer and wine section with a sampling station and a Healthy Living department with bulk food items.

Other non-food departments, the announcement notes, will include floral, a pet section and H-E-B’s Household Essentials.

The building’s design involves a number of environmental sustainability elements, including energy-efficient refrigeration that has condensation capture for landscape irrigation, solar panels on the roof and EV chargers, according to the press release.

The prominent Texas grocer has continued to build new locations, update its store formats and hone its omnichannel operations.

Over the course of 2022, H-E-B opened five stores across Texas, according to its website, with two in the Houston area and another in Plano opening on the same day in early November. In September, H-E-B brought its flagship banner to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area with the opening of its store in Frisco. In April, H-E-B replaced one of its stores in New Braunfels with a store that is roughly 40,000 square feet larger than the original one.

In addition to the new stores, H-E-B debuted a wellness primary care clinic in Austin as well as opened a 50,000-square-foot e-commerce fulfillment center in Leander, Texas. Across Texas, the grocer also broke ground on four locations, including two set to open next year in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, and unveiled newly renovated stores in Round Rock and La Grange this year.