Editor’s Note from John the CEO: As I was working on my year-end project planning stuff for 2026, I saw a report on TV about a brotha putting pressure on HEB to open a store in South Oak Cliff. He noted how the area has been struggling as a “food desert” – where there is no grocery store within a few miles – and since areas like Bottom District were turning things around, why not be the only store that Oak Cliff residents can go to? He spent about $8,000 of his own money to make the case.
And on the surface, it makes sense. He lays out his plea on hebwhy.net in case you want to check it out. I applaud him as I’ve been covering this topic over the years and have a modern business and AI-technology solution I’ve been working on for my Digital Transformer Guy YouTube channel and website (SamsonaSoftware.com) to address this.
However, is it really that simple to apply lots of emotional pressure on one of the best supermarket business models in the country? Grocery stores and supermarkets operate on razor thin profit margins, which is part of why Black American owned grocery stores gradually went out of business long ago. The last one I went to was in Oklahoma City in the late 1980s when I was a sophomore at OU. I knew the owner and learned why things were tough for him. Some of the bread on the shelves were molding, some milk outdated, etc. It wasn’t due to incompetence. The grocery store business model is very complex, and if one aspect of the operation goes sideways, a domino effect can bring it down…