For those of you outside of South Texas it's hard to understand your friendly neighborhood H-E-B. Yes, it's a grocery chain, yes it dominates the market from Austin through San Antonio down past Laredo and even into the suburbs of Monterrey, Mexico, but it's a benign hegemony. A welcome presence. Plus they are the only company that successfully utilizes the deadpan
charm of Spurs forward Tim Duncan in the store's very funny TV commercials.
In just one wide-aisled place you can find barbacoa, a Manu Ginobli jersey, several varieties of homemade tortilas (flour, corn, whole wheat), an iPod, pink cake, a 45-in flatscreen television, a bucket of lard, Selena CDs, Justin Timberlake CDs, get a nurse practitioner to check your blood pressure (see 'bucket of lard' reference above), rent Knocked Up: The Unrated Edition for a dollar, buy fresh pan dulce, and, of course, stock up on cheap and plentiful groceries. I would gladly trade three Trader Joe's for even one half-ass HEB. (In fact, three Trader Joe's could probably fit into one half-ass HEB.)
True story: When writer Oscar Casares published Brownsville, his collection of short stories set in and around the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, he bemoaned the fact that most Valley residents, the very subjects of his fiction, would be unable to buy the book -- Barnes and Nobles being rare in this Mexican American border region. His solution? Casares convinced his publisher to distribute his debut collection -- a book Publisher's Weekly called "a direct line of descent from Mark Twain and Ring Lardner" -- at every checkout stand in every HEB in the Valley. Nestled among the salsa chamoy, People en Espanol, and Bud Light, sales of his literary fiction increased dramatically.
But I digress (as well as making myself homesick), but it seems HEB is now expanding their legendary customer services further: apparently following the model of Amoeba Records, the grocery store is now sponsoring in-store appearances by live rock bands. And while Paul McCartney has yet to add the HEB Supersotre over on Potranco Rd to his tour dates, Girl in a Coma is stepping up.
From a review of the band's recent in-store appearance that truly captures both the charm of Girl in a Coma and the unique, no-nonsense grocery store venue...
The crowd totaled around 30-40 people all huddled together in between racks of DVD's and bargain bins. The singer Nina Diaz apparently was sick as she had a minor cough but as far as I could tell it didn't seem to effect her singing at all, in fact all the songs sounded just as good or better than the studio versions. The crowd was mostly younger teenagers most of which had their moms in tow. I was actually surprised by how many Parental Figures stayed to watch the show as they could have easily been shopping instead. Now if you have heard any Girl in a Coma songs you know that they aren't the kind that the older generations tend to appreciate, not to mention the heavily tattooed and pierced girls that make up the band, however all the songs are clean and contain no bad language or imagery.
The girls played a total of 5 songs, the fifth being an encore, and as they played the crowd grew even bigger as shoppers who probably didn't even know there was going to be an instore performance that day or even who GIAC was for that matter stopped by to listen. Most of these newcomers had their children with them and I was surprised by how close they got and how long they stayed considering that the songs were very loud, but the children seemed to being enjoying it as well, this probably being their first concert, whether they knew it or not.
During the 4th song the HEB intercom kept going off calling for clean ups on aisle 5 which made Nina break out laughing for a majority of the song, she even altered one of the lyrics to "There's a big Sale!"
Like I said, DIY...por vida! Have a good weekend.
Wow. South Texas is a whole other world.
Posted by: cindylu | 14 September 2007 at 07:34 PM
after living in texas for several years i appreciate HEB (especially the pan dulce they sell in the valley). but how can you say that you'd trade trader joe's for heb?! tj's is one of my favorite things about being back in california.
Posted by: jennifer | 17 September 2007 at 06:07 PM
trader joes aint got shit on HEB! did you know that HEB has their very own brand of hummus....take that TJ!!
Posted by: sarah | 09 October 2007 at 05:17 PM
trader joes aint got shit on HEB! did you know that HEB has their very own brand of hummus....take that TJ!!
Posted by: sarah | 09 October 2007 at 05:18 PM
trader joes aint got shit on HEB! did you know that HEB has their very own brand of hummus....take that TJ!!
Posted by: sarah | 09 October 2007 at 05:18 PM