H-E-B is drawing more shoppers through its doors than almost any grocer in the country, according to new location data. Visits to the Texas chain rose 6.0% from January through August 2026 compared with the same months a year earlier, while visits across the grocery category rose just 0.9%, according to a Placer.ai analysis published Sept. 30.
That gap means H-E-B’s visit growth ran more than six times the category rate. The figures are estimates of store visits built from anonymized phone location data, not sales, and H-E-B did not release them.
For shoppers in Houston, San Antonio, Austin and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the numbers help explain the crowded parking lots and a steady stream of new store openings. For competitors, they show how much ground the privately held chain is taking in its home state.
The Numbers Behind the Gap
The headline figure combines two forces — more stores and busier stores. Placer.ai separated the two by measuring average visits per location, which rose 2.6% year over year for H-E-B against 0.1% for the wider grocery category…