H-E-B opens with fanfare

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

After eight long years of waiting, Mansfield residents finally got their H-E-B last week.

The Texas-based grocery officially opened June 26 with hundreds of people in line waiting for the 6 a.m. opening, while they were treated to coffee, drum line and drill team performances and cheers from assembled employees when they finally entered the front doors.

“I know we all appreciate the end to the question ‘When is H-E-B going to open?’” said Mayor Michael Evans at the ribbon cutting June 25. “I will say ‘Yeah’ myself.”

H-E-B purchased 28 acres at the southeast corner of US 287 and East Broad Street in 2016, but did not break ground on the 122,000-square-foot grocery store until February 2023. The Mansfield store is the sixth H-E-B built in North Texas, among the 435 spread across Texas and Mexico. Mansfield’s H-E-B has almost 800 employees, full and part time, and 90 percent of them were hired locally, said the new store manager Shannon Crites.

The store will have an impact on the city’s economy in several other ways, said Jason Moore, executive director of the Mansfield Economic Development Corp. H-E-B will boost property tax, sales tax and bring in spending from out of town, he said.

“The economic impact is substantial,” Moore said. “The trade area for H-E-B is bigger than for any other grocery. For H-E-B, people will drive an average of 28 minutes, while the average for other stores is 15 to 20 minutes.”

H-E-B showed its commitment to economic involvement at the ribbon cutting, presenting checks for $10,000 to Mansfield Animal Care & Control and to Big Hearts Day Habilitation Center.

Mabrie Jackson, director of public affairs for H-E-B, said the staff had been watching the growth of the H-E-B Foodie Group Mansfield Facebook page, which had gathered more than 21,000 followers by the time of the ribbon cutting.

Juan Carlos Ruck, Vice President, North West Food Drug Retail Division at H-E-B, said he had worried that no one would come to the opening. He need not have worried.

The thousands of customers who visited Mansfield’s H-E-B in the first few days were eager to spend their money.

A special guest also showed up for the ribbon cutting. Margie Johnson, 97, of Mansfield had been eagerly awaiting the store’s opening. Johnson, who lived in San Antonio and Austin before moving to Mansfield, has spent 75 years shopping at H-E-B.

“I have missed it,” Johnson said. “(There are) so many thing that I have missed, I couldn’t tell you. Everybody you talk to is so excited.”

She said she plans to start buying on “whichever aisle she hits first,” but admits to loving the ice cream.

H-E-B has always been a good place to shop, Johnson said, even 75 years ago.

“Even then, they had more things than the other stores and the prices were always comparable,” she said. “Now they have prepared meals. We didn’t have those for a long time.”

The store boasts a wide variety of departments, including a Texas True BBQ restaurant with dine-in and drive-thru, a bakery turning out bread, cakes and store-made tortillas, Cooking Connection with live food demonstration and recipes, curbside pickup and a household essentials department with dishes and small kitchen electronics.

H-E-B is also the No. 1 craft beer and wine retailer in Texas, offering a wide variety of selections.

The store is open from 6 a.m.-11 p.m. daily. For more information, click here.

‍