HEB is a behemoth. They drive all competitors out of business, especially the Mom and Pop stores.
Reminds me of the time I lived in a very, very sparsely populated area and the slogan of the nearest grocery store was "We may be the only grocery store in town, but we try not to act like it".
Um, yes, you did.
No, it is a fairly small sub - regional, controlled by its founding family. Because of their service and pricing, they have managed to hold off the behemoths (to use your words). Territory expansion has tended to come through their niche Central Market stores. (They have only a few hundred stores in Texas, and some operations in Mexico.) There are still Butts running Harry E. Butts Grocery stores. So it IS a mom & pop operation.
You must be confusing them with some other chain.
At the same time opposing any regional chains because they are the “hometown” grocer. Saw the same thing when I lived in Washington state. The “hometown” grocer did everything they could to oppose any competition, bragging about locally sourced food, etc. Their store brand apple juice came from China.
I never even heard of HEB and I’ve been around a long time.
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Enough about "mom and pops" stores already. Nobody wants to go back to them. The big chains are able to supply a diverse amount of goods at reasonable prices through their efficiencies and economy of scale.
People like to think "mom and pop" shops are Norman Rockwell. Like what they see on the Walton's TV show. Well it was never like that. When people used to rely on these stores, they had a crappy selection to choose from and paid a higher price.
Service wasn't all that great either. Chances were, you'd walk into one of those stores and the owner's 15-year-old kid would be out in the back reading comic books. The father would be in the aisles, stacking cans of tomato paste or something. The mother would be at the register doing a crossword puzzle and scowling at you the whole time.
If you needed something that you couldn't find, you'd get a laconic shrug of the shoulders and an "Ain't got that, gonna hafta special order it, I can have it here week from Thursday but you gonna hafta pay extra and all."
Good riddance all you mom and pops.