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Off Brand
How Beloved Texas Grocer H-E-B Became the Ultimate Catastrophe Brand
The chain continues to deliver in hurricanes, pandemics — and now energy grid disasters
The recent Texas weather disaster and subsequent energy grid meltdown left many losers in its wake: residents, power companies, government regulators, and Ted Cruz. But the tragedy also produced at least one clear and unabashed winner: H-E-B, a 116-year-old, family-owned regional grocery chain based in San Antonio and already popular throughout much of the state.
At a moment when Mother Nature offered peril and institutions seemed helpless to respond, the mainstream grocer was open for business with stocked shelves, serving as an anchor of basic competence — and received glowing coverage for doing its job. It’s a halo effect most brands can only dream of, and it’s not the first time total catastrophe has, in effect, been good for H-E-B. The business editor of the San Antonio Express-News summed up the semiserious conventional wisdom that emerged on social media: “We’d all be better off if H-E-B took over the Texas power grid.”
At first it’s tempting to chalk up H-E-B fandom to traditional factors. A 2019 assessment of the cult of H-E-B in Eater noted the company’s reputation for good service and treating employees well, plus its unique food offerings, including Hatch chile cookies and its celebrated in-store True Texas BBQ chain. Almost all of H-E-B’s 350 or so stores are in Texas. (A few are in Mexico.) Outsize local affection for a hometown (or home state) grocer isn’t unusual, from Wegmans on the East Coast to Rouses in Louisiana to more rarified examples like upscale organic specialist Erewhon in Los Angeles. Sometimes there’s more of a love/hate vibe between such chains and their customers, but they still connect with regional identity. Maybe doubly so in this case, Eater noted: “After oil, Texas pride may be the state’s single most lucrative natural resource.”
Management already…
