12 Reasons to Love H-E-B

Moving to Texas was great except it meant shopping at a new (to us) grocery store chain: H-E-B. Grocery stores are an integral part of your life, no matter if you shop a few times a week or just once a month. To start a new “relationship” with a grocery store was not my favorite. I didn’t know the ins and outs of it, how their coupon policy worked, what their best products and deals are, or how their sale cycle went, like I did with my previous grocery store chain in Indianapolis.

After a year of being here in Texas, I am finally getting more familiar with HEB and all it has to offer. Despite my initial hold-ups at the beginning of our relationship, I have come to love various aspects of HEB. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the pre-grand opening press event of HEB in Wimberely, Texas yesterday and have been compensated for this post, but all opinions are my own.

12 Reasons to Love HEB

1. Quality HEB Products

Everyone knows that name brand foods and products are more expensive, so it’s great that HEB brand products are of a high quality. We especially enjoy their big tubs of HEB Greek yogurt. My kids devour that stuff. We seriously buy three of them to get us through a week. I feel good giving them something that tastes good, is healthy, and doesn’t cost a small fortune.

2. HEB Meal Deals

I finally took advantage of an HEB Meal Deal about two weeks ago. I don’t know why I waited so long! The free sample, and its accompanying saleswoman, convinced me to buy their deal. So, because I bought a package of Sausage links (which I sampled in-store), I received a free package of hot dogs, a free bag of chips, a free package of flour tortillas, with the purchase of the sausage.

3. HEB In-Store Coupons

I was a bit confused by the in-store coupons hanging off the shelves at first, but I now love them. HEB is all about their yellow tags. Some of them are store coupons, and some are manufacturer coupons. The store coupons usually offer a free item when you buy an item. I’ve taken advantage of this multiple times, especially if I was already going to buy 2 boxes of whatever product anyway: the free product is a nice bonus on top. If the yellow tag is a manufacturer coupon, it allows me to save money, even when I forgot to look for and print off coupons ahead of time.

4. HEB Digital Coupons

This is a fairly new feature, and one of my favorites. Simply download the HEB app on your phone, and upload any and all coupons you want to it. Then once you get to the checkout, simply add your telephone number on the checkout pad and your PIN number, and any eligible coupons will be applied. No needing another card on your key ring or in your wallet. Plus, you can totally add coupons on your phone once you get to the store and look up what you’re buying on the app.

5. Fast Checkout

No one wants to stand at the checkout line for a long time, especially with four young children. And if you’ve gone grocery shopping with young children, you know that it’s always at checkout that your baby will start to cry, your toddler will throw a fit over candy, and your preschooler will need to go potty. HEB is great for getting your checked in and out as quickly as possible, even during peak hours.

6. Accepts WIC and Food Stamps

For all the families that need a little help putting food on the table, it’s great to know that HEB accepts both WIC and EBT cards.

7. HEB Buddy Bucks

No more bribing my children to be on good behavior in order to get a cookie, thanks to HEB!  They look forward to earning HEB bucks instead. Since they can’t get them until checkout anyway, it really does work on them keeping good behavior the entire time in the store. It’s an added bonus that they have something to keep them occupied during the checkout process that doesn’t involve standing on the end of the aisles, messing with an cords, or laying on the floor.

8. Customer Services – Assist you to your car

HEB staff and their customer service are great. They always ask if you would like help out to your car as you are checking out. With four children in tow now, one being a toddler, and another being a newborn, I have been taking them up on that offer every time I visit the store. It’s been a great blessing! By the time I get my children secured in the car, my bags are often completely loaded in my trunk! And they take care of returning the cart too.

9. Family Friendly

H-E-B stores have always been great to visit with my family, even if the carts aren’t always accommodating of more than one child. The staff are patient with my kids. The bathrooms have changing tables, drinking fountains outside it, little baskets to pick up at ends of aisles, and ample stickers at the checkout lines.

10. The HEB Bakery

Donuts. Red Velvet Cakes. Fresh Baked Bread. We’ve had all of these from HEB and they are delicious and affordable. The bakery section always smells delicious.

11. Samples

As much as I try to avoid going shopping near lunch or nap time, it happens. Having samples to tide over myself and my children until we can really sit down and eat is heavenly.

12. Cares about the Community

One of the greatest things about this new Wimberely HEB  store is how unique it is. Wimberely HEB was built where the Bowen Intermediate School used to be, so they salvaged and repurposed several items from the school into the store’s design to pay homage to the location’s beloved roots. These include the school’s softball scoreboard which is keeping tally of the amount of organic products offered in the store, the school’s bleachers which now make up the “chef’s hat” at the Cooking Connection station, the school’s gym floor was used to create outdoor table and as decor and signage within the store, and the tin roof used for aisle markers and decorative siding throughout the store.

This year Wimberely suffered greatly from the Memorial Day Floods, and HEB provided a lot of services, for free, to the communities of Wimberely and San Marcos, like washing machines, water, and food. Local chainsaw artist Doug Moreland cut a cypress tree fallen in the floods into a custom Texas bike rack that sits outside the store. H-E-B is committed to conserving as much of Wimberely as they can

The Wimberely HEB features energy efficient elements like refrigerated cases with added doors, an abundance of large, high windows to filter in natural light, and LED energy-savings light in-store and out, and even a water quality system to collect rainwater and condensation for re-use in irrigating the landscape. 

Do you shop at H-E-B? What’s your favorite item?