b'C o m m u n i t yW e just LOVE HEB. Let us repeat especially for anyand back down to Rockport and south through AP, Ingleside and Portland, will HEB muckety-mucks who, but some great and improb- consume a food or use a product from HEBand not just purchased there, but able coincidencemight be reading: We LOVE HEB! Inactually manufactured by HEBevery day of our lives. For most of us, virtual-fact, the two greatest losses for those of us forced intoly (a funny word that we think means 90%+) everything we eat, drink, and exile in another of these great American states, like Cal- clean-with comes from HEB.ifornia, for example, are Whataburger and HEB. A closeThus, the Texas Coastal Bend is a virtual supermarket monopolyby choice. You third would be Tex-Mex food in general, which, even atwill not hear from us the knee-jerk, all big corporations are bad reflex that is a joint called Tex-Mex in Hollywood, California, is topped with white cheeseso en-vogue among opinion journalists. While many big grocers, including HEB, and mol, and not cheddar and chili. There are some things that make us Tex- have been accused of cut-throat pricing designed to elbow out their competi-ans, and Whataburger, Tex-Mex, and HEB are at the top of the list. tors in a given market, the truth is that HEB just does a better job giving shop-Now, as tends to be the case in the Coastal Bend, almost anything Texan ispers what they want. Those of us who have lived here long enough to remember uber-Texan down here. Why is that? Maybe its because were in the overlapAlbertsons (where Conns is now at SPID/Everhart) and Handy Andy (the cur-zone with our brethren in Mexico. South Texasat least south of the imaginaryrent Sprouts), know that their stores usually saw 1/3 the crowd of shoppers you line that runs from Laredo to San Antonio, and southeast to Victoria, really,would see at HEB at any given time. And most of us remember why: their prices not all the way to Houstonis where our great state was born, first as its ownwere usually too high, their stores were never that clean, their staff was never nation, and before that, under the rule of Mexico. It was those beloved heroesthat friendly, and it just wasnt Texan-enough for most of our tastes.of The Alamo, Davy Crocket and James Bowie, who died fighting the MexicanThe only supermarket competition with more than one store in the Coastal army for the independence of Texas as its own nation. Bend are the Walmart Supercenters, and we all know how those grocery shop-In that vein, it is wholly appropriate that the Coastal Bend, and Corpus Christiping crowds look compared to HEBabout 1/3 the size, like in the old Albert-in particular, is all but owned by HEB Grocery. In fact, if your think about it,sons days. We have two IGA (Independent Grocers Association) stores here, each and every one of over 600,000 of us who reside as far south and westneither on the mainland, one on North Padre Island and the other in Port Aran-as Kingsville and Falfurrias, east to Beeville and Refugio, over to Port Lavacasas, as well two chain locations that specialize in the super-healthy and organ-30THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'