Dive Brief:

• H-E-B is providing same-day grocery delivery service for students, faculty and staff at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) through a partnership with the institution, according to a Tuesday article on the university’s website.
• Drivers for H-E-B’s Favor delivery company will deliver orders and be able to use designated parking spots at four on-campus locations.
• The arrangement builds on other initiatives by H-E-B to provide online grocery service on college campuses in Texas.

Dive Insight:

H-E-B is making a wide range of goods available for delivery to people on the University of Texas’ flagship campus, including fresh produce, meats and pantry items. The grocer will also bring school supplies, storage bins, cleaning products and other merchandise to customers at the university.

Drivers will alert shoppers by text when they leave the store and work with them to identify a precise pickup location, according to the article. Door-to-door-service is also an option for all students, UT Austin said.

“As we look to the future and the changing face of commerce, we are proud to become one of H-E-B’s newest Campus Delivery Hubs, a step that will ensure all Longhorns have access to affordable nutrition,” Kelsey Evans, executive director for corporate relations at the university, said in a statement.

H-E-B began providing grocery delivery service last November at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, under a partnership similar to the one the supermarket chain established with UT Austin. The retailer inaugurated a grocery delivery program at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, in April 2021.

H-E-B isn’t the only grocer that’s angling to reach college students via online service. In October, Kroger launched a pickup program at the University of Kentucky through which students and faculty can pick up grocery orders from a parking lot outside Kroger Field, the university’s football stadium.

Other universities have also worked with food retailers to provide their communities with convenient access to groceries. Whole Foods Market has run a 36,000-square-foot store on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., since 2011, for example.

Last month Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) opened a 4,100-square-foot grocery store on its Monroe Park campus in Richmond, Virginia. The store, which the university is running in partnership with Aramark Collegiate Hospitality and calls Ram City Market, sits in a space that, until 2019, was formerly occupied by a Walmart location and offers “prices competitive with major grocery stores,” VCU said.