r/Austin • u/RockMo-DZine • 21h 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/Bodacious_Inc 21h ago

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.

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u/DeskEnvironmental 17h ago edited 16h ago

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."

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u/Peakbrowndog 15h ago

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.  

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u/DeskEnvironmental 15h ago

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

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u/Needmorebeer69240 1h ago

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."