H-E-B announced Tuesday that it would bring two new stores to Dallas—but the city is still on the outside looking in when it comes to getting an actual flagship H-E-B grocery within city limits.
The two new stores, in eastern and southern Dallas, will be a new-to-North Texas concept, though: Joe V’s Smart Shop, the grocery retailer’s answer to stores like Aldi. Like Aldi and Lidl stores, Joe V’s stores carry fewer than 10,000 items, compared to the 35,000 to 40,000 items in a conventional supermarket. It focuses instead on the top 20 items purchased by customers in the area, but distinguishes itself from its low-price competitors by offering bakery, meat, and seafood departments that are self-service. Joe V’s stores also sell national brands and H-E-B- and Central Market-branded products.
Similarly to H-E-B and Central Market, the company says that Joe V’s will also offer tortillas, meals, and sushi made in-store.
The company said that its first Dallas location will be open at 4101 W. Wheatland Rd., near Highway 67, by next summer. A second location at 5204 S. Buckner Blvd., near Buckner and Samuell boulevards, will open in spring 2025. The two locations will be the company’s first Joe V’s stores outside the Houston area.
“With the introduction of Joe V’s Smart Shop to Dallas, we are excited to build on our longstanding presence in the area and commitment to serve more customers in this dynamic and growing part of Texas,” Roxanne Orsak, H-E-B chief operating officer, said in a statement. “As a multi-format retailer, we have developed a variety of brands and formats to best serve our customers across the state.”
Even though it’s not an H-E-B, Councilmember Adam Bazaldua said he’s happy something is coming to his district.
“As much as I, along with many other residents, would like to see an H‑E‑B flagship store at the Samuell/Buckner location, I am excited about the addition of any grocery store that will serve our community and combat food insecurities,” he said. “I hope to gain more knowledge of their Joe V’s store model while visiting a location next week in Houston and look forward to working with the company through the process over the next couple of years.”
The Wheatland location is within five miles of a WinCo Foods, Aldi, Tom Thumb, Kroger, Target, and Walmart. It will also compete with the recently announced Tom Thumb store that will open in 2025 in the RedBird mall property. The Dallas City Council approved almost $6 million in incentives to bring Tom Thumb to the area in April.
The Buckner location will have some competition from a Walmart Supercenter and is about four miles from a Tom Thumb and an Albertsons.
But many of the neighborhoods closest to those new market locations are still at least a 15-minute drive away. More grocery stores in closer proximity will help those communities find healthy, fresh food.
According to Child Poverty Action Lab’s resource explorer, in the area closest to the new Buckner Joe V’s site, for instance, there are about 0.7 to 0.75 grocery stores per 10,000 people. The area where the Wheatland store will be located has around 0.74 stores per 10,000 people. By comparison, Preston Hollow averages more than two grocery stores per 10,000 people, while Lakewood and Bishop Arts average about 1.45 and 1.31.
Besides more access to fresh food, with those stores will also come jobs. H-E-B says that, on average, each Joe V’s store employs about 150 people in stores that are about 55,000 square feet in size.
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