One month in, how H-E-B is holding up amid coronavirus shopping

CONVERSE, Tex. (KTSA News) — It’s been a few weeks since the coronavirus pandemic reached Texas and San Antonio-based grocer H-E-B says it has been keeping up with the demand for product the whole time.

Throughout the whole process, H-E-B has said it has been and continues to be prepared to handle the needs of the public.

“We’ve got a team of folks who very early on and as the situation started to evolve in China really started looking at what this would do here stateside and how it could impact us as a country and H-E-B as a business,” H-E-B spokeswoman Julie Bedingfield told KTSA News Thursday. “We’ve been looking at this for a long time.  We feel like we are prepared for the long-term of whatever the COVID-19 outbreak may bring.”

Bedingfield said the company is always ready for events like natural disasters when they happen in Texas.

“We talk about this in comparison to natural disasters and we know this is very different.  With something like a hurricane or a tornado, there is an end to it and you can model that out and see it pretty accurately.  And with this, we can’t.”

For the company, it means staying the course and having a plan that can endure tight restrictions and occasional hiccups that develop along the way — whether they are due to suppliers or regulations on a local or federal level.

Some of those regulations and CDC guidelines change each day.

Bedingfield said a company value H-E-B has long held is the ability to be flexible with whatever happens in the market and in the industry.

Some of that flexibility includes how it communicates short-term supply restrictions on select products.

“In addition to just beginning to implement sanitation policies that were above and beyond what we already had in place was of course product limits,” the spokeswoman explained.  “To be transparent and help our customers out, we have a daily updated list.  If there is any changes of things being increased or decreased or brought on a list of product limits or taken off of the list of product limits.  That’s just to protect the supply chain and ensure that everybody has an opportunity to come to the store, do their shopping and get the necessities that they need right now to sustain them.”

H-E-B has been offering in-store service as well as delivery and curbside throughout the government emergency restrictions.

The store’s recommendation to help them help you get what you need when you need it?

“We want everyone to keep shopping in a way that makes them the most comfortable,” Bedingfield said.

While the store has not had to make major changes to how it operates since the beginning of the pandemic reaching Texas, there are a few requests the grocer has for customers.

“If you are coming to H-E-B, to the extent that you can, only bring one person per household,” the spokeswoman requested.  “And we know this is not an option that’s available to everyone, but the more we can limit the traffic into the store from a healthful perspective, the more we can ensure social distancing.”

That also extends to curbside.

“If you are going to use curbside, please stay in your vehicle.  Our customers are amazing and in a pre-COVID time, they’d hop out of their cars and they’d help us load their groceries in their car.  We’ve got it.  We’ll do the work for you.  We want you to stay in your vehicle.”

The company has also brought in its on-demand delivery subsidiary Favor to help out.  That company has been tasked with working H-E-B’s senior support line to get same-day delivery of goods delivered to homes of seniors to keep that population safe and healthy.

With everyone apparently sufficiently stocked on toilet paper, H-E-B has seen some minor changes in what people are picking up at its stores.

“With more parents staying at home with kids, we’ve seen an uptick in arts and crafts type items and things of that nature,” Bedingfield shared.  “Or more people doing baking.  I know everybody’s baking bread and cookies.”

Bedingfield said the company has been grateful for all of work done by its employees.

“We’re so fortunate to have really amazing partners.  I think our appreciation of them was evident early on with us launching our Texas Proud pay and just providing $2 an hour more to our hourly store, manufacturing, warehouse and transportation partners.”

And that appreciation extends to the shoppers.

“We want our partners and we want our customers to be as happy as possible and healthy throughout this.  We’ve been just blown away both by the resiliency of our partners as well as the appreciation of our customers.  We really want to make sure to thank them as well for the patience and understanding and appreciation of us during this time as well.”