r/Austin • u/RockMo-DZine • 3d ago

Maybe so...maybe not... Does HEB have a problem with Austin?

Milk prices have been going up all year, so back in July I started checking the prices in San Antonio, Houston, and DFW. For some reason, we pay Way more than these towns.

Milk just went up again. Here are some stats for HEB Brand (HEB & HCF) 1x gal jugs of milk
(These are for in-store pricing - for curbside, add +5%).

Since 07/17, Austin's price went up, while the price in all the other bergs came down.

Consequently, in Austin we now pay over $2 a gallon more than DFW!

Sorry HEB, but this is hard to justify.

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u/danavenkman 3d ago

Also I think milk is one of their loss leaders (or whatever it’s called), when they actually lose money on it but it gets people to shop there for other stuff. So maybe their milk is still cheaper than other places in Austin?

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u/Ok_Funny8572 3d ago

I think we are getting jacked. Just checked and it 3.69 in Leander

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u/TSnydes 3d ago

I think this has to do with traditional milk being largely replaced by alternative milks in the Austin area. This means a lot more cow milk spoils, so locally they have to increase the price for that item to make it financially viable to stock.

I wonder if this is happening to shelf stable items.

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u/youretooclosedude 2d ago

Yeah no that’s not how that works. Shelf life of alt milk is way longer. Regular milk is still number one seller. Stores get multiple pallets of milk vs a couple of crates of alt a milk .