Not a cucumber or cereal box is out of place at a spacious new Kroger store that opened last fall in north Fort Worth, Texas. The superstore — roughly the size of two football fields –— boasts wide aisles, a section to buy t-shirts from the local high school sports teams, and a Pax & Beneficia coffee shop, a local North Texas chain.
The new supermarket is part of a wave of new grocery store construction happening in Texas, spurred after years of rapid population growth in the region. Many of the new builds are concentrated in Dallas-Fort Worth, one of the most active markets for new grocer construction in the country.
As retailers like Kroger, H-E-B, and Costco build up their brick-and-mortar footprint to meet pent up demand from population growth, they’re strategizing on how to attract and retain new customers.
“Development jumped,” said Bob Young, who helped develop the new Kroger and other Texas grocery stores for the real estate firm Weitzman. “Can it be competitive? Yes.”
That competition has taken on a unique Texas flavor.
“We have a strong competitive set here in DFW: Walmart, H-E-B, the Albertsons group has Tom Thumb,” said Rudy DiPietro, president of Kroger Texas. “(It’s) maybe the most competitive grocery retail dynamic in the country.”
He said Kroger is running a new Texas playbook, which includes a restructure and leans into state pride, authenticity and local store customization.
“They (Texans) are proud of the brands. They want to support the brands locally here, the flavors that they desire are different,” he said. “In that restructure process … we put people experts behind local, we put experts behind multicultural.”
At the new Fort Worth Kroger, Texas is represented throughout the store. Signage features the shape of Texas and local brands and producers.
Young said it’s not a coincidence that the vibe feels reflective of one of Kroger’s biggest competitors: Texas’s own grocery chain H-E-B.
“The identity of H-E-B is preeminent in the grocery space,” Young said.
Bluebonnet themed reusable grocery bags are one example of the large number of specialty merchandise Texas grocer H-E-B sells to tap into state pride.
Elizabeth Trovall/Marketplace
Grocers aspire to be like H-E-B because its following in Texas is cult-like.
“They have people camping out at night to go into their store,” he said. “Talk about customer loyalty!”
One French TikTok creator recently compared H-E-B to a mega-church, emphasizing the Texas iconography in its stores.
“The branding… my God, everything in that store is shaped like Texas,” he said in the viral video. “They even have Texas-shaped pasta, because apparently, your digestive system won’t recognize a carbohydrate unless it looks like a map of the panhandle.”
H-E-B declined to be interviewed for this story, but the store is also expanding its North Texas footprint. And directly across the street from the shiny new Kroger, H-E-B owns a vacant lot.
One day H-E-B will likely compete directly with the new north Fort Worth Kroger for customers.
If that happens, Fort Worth Kroger shopper Brandon Millard said he would likely shop at H-E-B over the new Kroger.
“They have a lot more selection and I like how they make a lot of their stuff in store,” he said. “It’s really nice,” Millard said.
But Bob Young wouldn’t count out Kroger either, despite all of H-E-B’s Texas devotees.
“Some competitors die off and some competitors play up. Kroger is in a position to play up,” he said.
And while these grocer rivalries may keep stores on their toes, Young said it’s the customers in these growing, competitive markets who reap the benefits.
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