I drive 4 towns over to buy produce at Walmart. The stuff HEB here gets looks like seconds that no other store would accept.
They only stock half of what’s in the weekly ads. For some strange reason, they’ll pull a product that has a national coupon. Many times, it’s welcome to Venezuela with half empty shelves. It never fails, I have to ask someone in the back to look for an item and I never find half the grocery list. No, I do not put anything but the bare basics on the list because 1) I know it would be useless and 2) I’m on a tight budget.
They have admitted the shelf bread comes in frozen so that’s why the loafs aren’t soft.
I’ve told many times about the having to do what amounts to drug deals by calling and calling and finally being told to meet the guy at the back door at a certain time to get something. Then getting to the check out and the cashier and bagger shocked because they didn’t know they had the whatever.
They haven’t sold fresh cauliflower in years. Same with pork ‘n beans. Corn tortillas will be in “on the next truck” but they’ll only be getting one package of 8. Yep, one single package, not a pallet or case. The entire meat department could fit on two of the desks I’m typing at so cuts are limited and there may only be a couple packages of what you want.
And you have to check the receipt because they’re bad about over charging. Last time, I was over charged $24. Yes, I made them correct it but how many people don’t realize they’re being ripped off? Sending emails to their HQ is a waste of time.
Serious? I’m not going to bash Walmart as a retail entity, but their produce and house brands are not even close to HEB. As a central Texan, I don’t know anyone who would disagree. Are you some Walmart exec who lives in Delaware? Reply, if you get the Ray Wylie Hubbard reference. For those who do, “... ... we’re from Texas”
You are describing a lot of the HEB stores in small towns, and the reason that the town of Bandera and the county decided about 10 years ago to say no to HEB building a store there.
One look at the way they cut down all the trees and turn their part of a small town area into a clone of their stores in the city was enough-especially with the tales and photos of the poorly stocked stores in those towns. This is a tourist area for mostly people who want to stay at guest ranches and rustic cabins in the woods, ride horses, eat at farm-to-table places in the boonies, shop for country antiques and Native American stuff, etc-big city type stores don’t fit the image anyway...
I wish that HEB would just stay out of small towns-leave them to Walmart-they know how to run a store in a rural area-after all, it is where they first started...
Even the HEB in Boerne, 25 miles away is just barely acceptable in spite of being so near SA-their produce selection is crap, and mostly not fresh-the last time I got strawberries there, I swear they were going squashy by the time I got home and unloaded my truck.
The HEB in Kerrville is a little better about stocking staple items, but don’t even think of asking at the meat counter for a cut of meat if there is none already wrapped and on display-the choice of cuts is really limited, and they are almost always out of any cut of meat advertised in the weekly ads that come in the mail-the produce problem is the same, and the selection of fresh fish sucks-if I happen to be in Boerne or Kerrville, I’ll shop at the Walmart, which at least has fresher produce-better selection, too...
I work hard for what little I have-and I do insist on eating organic, non-GMO and free range-always have-the local SuperS and the Kerrville Walmart both have better priced, fresher Organic produce and free range meat.
The only time I ever go inside an HEB is when my guy insists I go shopping with him in SA-he doesn’t do it often, because I pick through everything in the produce aisle, point out the lack of freshness, bitch about the price of the grass fed beef, etc-he lives in a ladeda gated enclave, and even that HEB has poor quality produce compared to Walmart-and the supposedly organic produce is on the edge of bad, too-for twice the price-I just watch him buy his groceries-I never buy any food for my home there...