H-E-B still rules in Houston grocery

Everything’s bigger in Texas, and that holds true for the state’s biggest grocery store chain in its biggest city. 

H-E-B still reigns supreme in Houston, beating out Kroger in 2023 as the top grocer in the metro area. 

Supermarket News reported a Texas-sized inaccuracy in late April when we published a story based on Chain Store Guide data that said Kroger edged ahead of the San Antonio, Texas-based grocer, capturing 22.7% of the metro Houston Market to H-E-B’s 22.5%. 

It was big news that the Cincinnati, Ohio-based national supermarket chain had overtaken the Houston market in H-E-B’s own backyard, but it turns out the data was incorrect. 

Not only were the numbers wrong, they weren’t as close as originally reported. 

H-E-B maintained 24.9% of the market in 2023 compared to Kroger’s 22%, Axios reports, citing updated data from Chain Store Guide.

Walmart came in third with 19.7%, and Costo and Sam’s Club came in a distant fourth and fifth place with 5.8% and 5.1%, respectively. 

Rounding out the top 10 were Food Town with 3.2%, Fiesta Mart with 2.6%, Safeway (Randall's Food & Drug) with 1.9%, and Whole Foods with 1.8%.