If you aren’t familiar with Texas, you probably aren’t familiar with HEB. I wasn’t, anyway. Except through my good friend here who spent the last 18 months before our move going on and on about how wonderful HEB was. I thought she was nuts. I hate shopping, I don’t cook, I rarely bake. Why would I find a shopping center fantastic? Also, her kid is allergic to everything so her life has been forced to revolve around food with shopping being a near-continuous activity since fresh is the only option left for their family. So ok, I cut her some slack. Grocery shopping is exciting for her. Whatever.

Now I’m here and I get it! I still don’t cook but I hope to now. I get excited about shopping. Every time I shop I discover something new and wonderful. And also the People! I love them.

So what’s so special about a grocery store?

Let’s start with the people becuase that, alone, is enough. They are super friendly. And I mean really REALLY friendly - not just southern/Texas friendly. I don’t know how they train them or find such happy-to-be-working-as-a-cart-boy employees but they found ‘em. When you walk up to checkout, if someone is not already standing there ready to help unload your groceries then someone will appear as soon as you load the conveyor belt with your first few items. Niiiiice. I hate the conveyor belt portion of the trip. Don’t know why, I just do. Meanwhile the cashiers FLY through the sales and someone else entirely is loading up the bags and throwing them in the cart. And not just willy-nilly (did I just say willy-nilly?!). But in some sort of organized fashion. And all the while they are all talking to you - how’s the weather? What do you have planned for this beautiful weekend? Oh I have a great recipe to share with you for this jam you just bought. Coming at ya from three sides - the conveyor-guy, the cashier and the bagger.

When all is said and done, they ask if you want assistance loading up your car. No tips accepted, thankyouverymuch. Did I say nice? I always say no because this level of niceness is more than this midwesterner can take without giving a tip. I feel like I’m Taking Advantage.

So out I go where invariably a cart boy will come up and start chatting up the afternoon talking about school, sports, where he’s from (because no one here is FROM Texas) and on it goes. When’s the last time a cart boy (or girl) struck up a conversation?!

Like I said, that alone is reason to want to go shopping. Need a little socialization? Lonely? Hit up the store! haha

But then there is the whole store experience. The kids beg to go shopping (really!) because there are samples (think Costco but good food!) around every corner. My kids are underfed apparently becuase they LIVE for “free examples”. Most of the samples are just there for the taking but then you have the demo area where they have whole cooking demonstrations and free recipes. And we aren’t talking about reheated Stouffers here. Today I had homemade bread dipped in kalamata olive/olive oil/pine nut spread. Heaven. I had to buy the ingredients just to keep from eating all of their. LOVE the cooking demo area. How did that even happen? Did I mention I don’t cook?

They have two other smaller cooking demo areas throughout the store.

Plus wine tasting. And exotic cheese tasting. I’m a freaking gourmet by the time I leave the store.

On top of that they have these fresh prep areas throughout the store. Want some fresh sushi? They’ll roll it for ya right there at the sushi bar. How about hot tortillas infused with butter (my current obsession) - no problem! Too gourmet for you? Your family is the PB&J type? Well wander over to the fresh nut area and grind yourself some nut butter - almond, cashew, honey roasted or organic peanuts for your choosing.

And then today I found The Bread. Back in Michigan before we moved to our old-new house, we lived near a Whole Foods that had the best fresh-baked garlic bread ever - huge cloves of garlic throughout. It has been years since I had that bread but - why yes - HEB makes such a thing fresh daily! Mmmmmm.

Last but not least - the prices. Cheap. As in cheaper than Kroger, cheap. Even the extensive line of HEB brand organics are cheap. Plus sales and coupons and a kids program where kids get a “HEB dollar” during every visit that they use in the “claw machine” to get those plastic dome balls often seen in gumball machines that are filled with points the kids can save up to buy things like pool toys or snacks. And a summer reading program. And other money saving incentives. Plus cheap gas. And drive-through pharmacy. And a huge health section to rival Whole Foods with all kinds of things I often need like essential oils and kids homeopathics. Love. LOVE!

Forget everything else I mentioned the other day - this move was worth it for the HEB alone!

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 10th, 2007 at 9:11 pm and is filed under House Keeping, Moving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.