admin @ Tue, 2005-10-25 05:46
After nearly 65 years in San Antonio, H.E. Butt Grocery Co. is giving its customers one more reason to visit its store at Southwest Military Drive and Zarzamora streets — one-stop shopping.
H-E-B Plus, a 170,000-square-foot superstore featuring more than 40,000 nonfood items, will open Friday. Shoppers will see expanded baby, beauty and party sections. New categories include entertainment — with more than 120,000 CDs, DVDs and video games — and a do-it-yourself aisle with ceiling fans and fancy lighting.
"I go to this store, then Wal-Mart and Target and Home Depot," said Angelica Aldaco while visiting the older H-E-B just a parking lot away from the Plus store. "Now everything will be there. It's good they put this on the South Side. This is what it needs."
But this concept also will keep its superstore competitors at bay, said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of New York-based Strategic Resource Group.
"It's going to be Target and Wal-Mart's worst nightmare," Flickinger said. "Wal-Mart has everyday low prices, while H-E-B will be competitive with Wal-Mart on everyday pricing and with deeply discounted deals in a given week. H-E-B can discount much more than Wal-Mart, Target or Costco."
Like many shoppers, Aldaco plans to be at the new H-E-B Plus on Friday, though not when it opens at 6 a.m. The company will close the 25-year-old H-E-B on Thursday night. It eventually will turn that space into a retail strip center, more parking and an H-E-B gas station.
Its new store took the place of the Levi Strauss factory that was torn down late last year.
Unlike other H-E-B Plus stores in San Juan, Austin and Waco, this one is considered part of "the next generation of Plus" stores because it's massive, H-E-B spokeswoman Kate Rogers said.
The first three Plus stores were about 109,000 square feet. Another huge Plus store opened this month in Corpus Christi at about 190,000 square feet.
Gracie Toyosima, the store's unit director in charge of fresh foods and grocery, said South Siders wanted more nonfood items in the stores, which encouraged the company to open its first Plus store on the South Side.
Also, the Military and Zarzamora H-E-B is one of the busiest stores in San Antonio, she said, and its pharmacy also does a large volume of business.
In addition to nonfood items, the H-E-B Plus store will have expanded meat and produce sections, boasting more than 120 organic items. Its Spoonz Café will feature a variety of cuisines, including food exclusive to Mexico.
"This sets the stage for retailing at H-E-B," said Greg Souquette, the company's senior vice president and general manager for the San Antonio/West region. "This store has a significant number of unique attributes."
The next H-E-B Plus is to open Nov. 11 in Round Rock, and the former McCreless Mall will transform into a Plus store next year, Rogers said. There are a few more Plus stores planned for San Antonio in the next few years, with some on the North Side, she added.
Shopper Linda Contreras said it's about time H-E-B opens a different format, because there aren't many supermarket options to choose from in San Antonio.
"All I see is H-E-B everywhere," said Contreras, who moved here four years ago from Orange County, Calif. "I want something different that has more things inside. They have so much money, they can make it bigger and better to make us happy."
The H-E-B Plus is more than twice the size of the former store and has 600 employees, 29 checkout lines and larger aisles. Besides adding a drive-through pharmacy, the Plus store will have four leased store spaces, including cell phone service, a jewelry store and a medical clinic for routine health services.
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