H-E-B Opens its Largest SA Store

By Camelia Bulea, Associate Editor

H-E-B’s new largest store is located in the San Antonio area’s busiest market for new-home building, at Bandera Road and Loop 1604. It measures 182,000 square feet and is the company’s 10th H-E-B Plus. The Plus store is adjacent to an older H-E-B store, which the company will lease out.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, the new H-E-B Plus is ringed with specialty departments such as pets, baby items, outdoor grilling and a party section. The publication also quoted Charlie Wernette, director of engineering, design and construction for H-E-B, who asserted that the store is designed for day-lighting, with high, open ceilings webbed with wooden trusses and studded with skylights.

Other efficiencies include shelves of soft drinks that are extra deep so they can be stocked just once, especially at night, to minimize disturbance of customers, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The store has 561 employees, including 150 new hires, and is built on 44 acres with more than 1,180 parking spaces.

The company has 332 stores in Texas and Mexico.

Meanwhile, AT&T opened a new 3,100-square-foot retail store in Kerrville, according to the San Antonio Business Journal. The new store is three times larger than the old AT&T store in Kerrville and includes a wider variety of handsets. According to the Journal, the company chose to expand in order to meet the demand for wireless and wireline products and services in the Texas Hill Country.

The Dallas-based company operates more than 50 retail locations in the San Antonio area.

Photo: rendering of H-E-B Plus in Laredo, Texas, courtesy of Wikipedia.org