Inspired mostly by this post on Crescat Sententia. Also, I'm trying to get away from the idea of just endlessly talking trash about things I hate and focusing instead on people and companies that do it right.
(08/16/05)
I recently helped my sister move into her new house, and I was assigned the task of stocking her new kitchen with food. I chose the closest HEB, of course, and starting analyzing why I had not even considered Randall's or Kroger, which are both closer. Walmart, of course, was out of the question, and Albertson's had been driven out of the Houston area a couple years ago by HEB.
- Pricing
- There is no question that HEB is consistently lower in price than the other grocery stores in the area. My roommate last year would often shop at Albertson's until he realized he was paying up to twice as much on basic goods.
- Loyalty cards
- I know someone who works in Safeway's marketing department. She told me about the customer tracking software they use to analyze patterns in purchasing, so that they can send targeted offers (coupons for the guy who hasn't shopped at their store in a while, etc.). I don't like the idea of tracking individual customers. Also, I don't like the inconvenience of having to carry either another stupid card in my wallet or have some fragile piece of plastic on my keychain. Not to mention that this goes into pricing as well, since these systems cost quite a bit of money, passed onto the consumer.
- Produce
- I think it's cool to be able to buy 5 different kinds of mushrooms and 10 different kinds of apples and 10 varieties of potatoes in up to 3 different sizes and 5 varieties of onions, as well as most varieties available in organic. Not that I buy most of them, but sometimes I like to buy shallots or leeks or finger potatoes or lychees or Asian pears, and I hate walking into a produce department looking for something they don't have. The best part about their produce department is that it's actually fresh. I don't like to have to spend more than a minute selecting tomatoes because they all seem to have blemishes or bruises.
- Meat/Seafood
- These guys are good. Choosing between USDA Prime, Choice, or Select grades of meat is nice. Being able to buy lamb at a regular grocery store is nice as well. Generally, HEB's selection of this kind of stuff is better than the other grocers in the area. Central Market kicks ass in this department, too, but I guess they don't really count.
- Alcohol
- I have to wonder why the other grocery stores refuse to stock good beer. Offering low carb beers and fruity malt beverages do not count as a wide selection. I'm sick of seeing an aisle of 40% Anheuser-Busch, 30% Miller, and 20% Coors, and then Dos Equis, Corona, Heineken, and Guinness tucked at the end. And sometimes Fat Tire or Newcastle or Bass. I've seen gas stations with better selection in half the shelf space. And another thing - I hate bad wine aisles with no rhyme or reason behind them. They don't seem to be organized by variety, region, winery, or even alphabetical order. HEB, surprisingly, does wine and beer correctly, and deserve to be commended. Also, the prices at HEB are considerably cheaper than liquor stores, who generally also do wine and beer correctly.
- Cheese
- HEB has a good selection of cheese, from mainstream stuff to ridiculously expensive imported cheeses (as well as their cheaper American knockoffs) and everything in between.
I know it's pretty stupid to show this much interest in one's grocery store, and I definitely deserve ridicule, but I don't care. I feel this way about anything to do with food.
