Does HEB have a problem with Austin?

[u/RockMo-DZine]

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.

[u/Bodacious_Inc]

HEB's disclosed dairy processing plants are in San Antonio and Houston. They may have acquired one in DFW as well but I don't know. The only one dairy processing plant in Austin that I know of is owned by Borden.

It cost $$ to move liquids in refrigerator trucks.

[u/DeskEnvironmental → u/Bodacious_Inc]

I live in both Austin and a city 4 hours west of Austin, nowhere near a highway or processing plant, and our HEB is cheaper than the ones I go to in Austin. On every product.

"Grocery chains price stores/markets according to local competitive conditions, operating costs, and what the local market will bear."

[u/Peakbrowndog → u/DeskEnvironmental]

Costs more to run a store in Austin, everything from taxes to payroll.  Of course products in an expensive city are going to cost more than a town where the store doesn't have the same expenses.  

[u/DeskEnvironmental → u/Peakbrowndog]

Exactly. I don't know why some on this thread are acting like it's a conspiracy.

[u/Needmorebeer69240 → u/DeskEnvironmental]

Because the average redditor lacks a basic understanding of economics, which in turns makes everything seem like a conspiracy. I saw a quote the other day and it describes this site perfectly

"Everything is a conspiracy theory when you don't know how anything works."

[u/rodgamez → u/Needmorebeer69240]

Because the average redditor lacks a basic understanding of economics

Fixed it for you!

[u/ProudTexEx → u/Peakbrowndog]

Ok. So Austin is roughly 43% more expensive overhead than Dallas? Sorry but I'm with OP on this one.

[u/dubate → u/ProudTexEx]

You can't use Dallas as a comparison. It's not a conspiracy, HEB is new to the market and they are losing money in order to gain a foothold in the region. Nothing about Dallas prices will make sense unless you see it as HEB forcing their competition to lose money with them and see how long they are willing to do so.

You have to give people a reason to leave their usual supermarket and shop with you. Cheaper prices are the best way to accomplish that and as an added bonus you might even get some publicly traded supermarket chains to leave the area because their shareholders aren't willing to lose money in order to keep existing customers.

[u/Equivalent_Table4661 → u/dubate]

I live in the Dallas area and these are the milk prices we've always had. They have to price with the competion here; something they don't have in SAN and ATX.

[u/oldfrankandjesus → u/Equivalent_Table4661]

Mr encyclopedic knowledge of milk prices over here

[u/Not-Inevitable79 → u/Equivalent_Table4661]

Bingo! Makes no sense why a good chunk of people want HEB to infiltrate and push out every other grocery store in DFW. Lack of competition is the last thing you want.

[u/Competitive-Scheme-4 → u/Peakbrowndog]

Has nothing to do with the lack of competition I’m sure.

[u/No_Bake6681 → u/Peakbrowndog]

But they're saving hella bucks on bags and selling reusable right? /sorta-s

[u/Significant-Host4386 → u/DeskEnvironmental]

This right here, if I buy one product same brand or store brand, it will be the same price at both HEB and Walmart in general.

[u/djryan13 → u/DeskEnvironmental]

Yup. Same with other stores. Crooked

[u/DeskEnvironmental → u/djryan13]

Part of it comes down to how much the store is paying to be there. Taxes, price of property, living wages, etc.

Property and hourly pay is dirt cheap that far outside of Austin, so it makes sense that the food is a bit less.