Stephanie Austin

When I used to live in Texas, one of my favorite places to go was the local HEB. In Cypress, which is right outside of Northwest Houston, the grocery store chain opened up an HEB that was comparable in size to a Wal-mart Supercenter. Now I know it sounds odd as to why a grocery store was one of my favorite hang outs, but those in charge of marketing the store knew what they were doing.

When the store first opened, they sent out mailers to all the housing subdivisions in the area with coupons to get free merchandise on certain days of the week. For example, on Monday you could get a free loaf of bread and a roll of paper towels or on Tuesday a free bag of veggie chips and a case of soda was the special. So this draws all the new customers into the store. Customers come for the free items, but when they see all the store has to offer they are more likely to buy other grocery items as well.

Then there are the hungry customers. Those, like me, that did not eat before going into the store, so then I’m putting things into my basket that I did not come into the store to get in the first place. HEB knows that there are hungry people in the store, so what do they do? Set up cooking demonstration areas all around the store. They also conveniently have the recipes out along with all the products that you need to purchase to make the specific recipe. HEB has a café where you can grab something quick to eat or you can walk around the store and get all the free samples the friendly employees are generously handing out.

It came to a point that I was finding something I needed to buy, just so I could go to the store and see what I could sample. My cousin and I would go to the HEB when we were hungry, so we could see what they were cooking that day. I cannot recall there ever being a time that I left that store with only what I came in for. The food choices were just too tempting.

Customers can go into HEB and have a plate of food from each of the cooking demonstration areas, dessert from the pastry area, wine and beer samples from the alcoholic beverage area, sample cheese and hummus from all over the world from the dairy area, sample numerous types of coffee, fruit, sushi, seafood, and juices from different displays all over the store. While you are passing through the aisles you can also stop at each of the random sample booths to eat, get a free sample, or an in-store coupon for certain products. So by time I would come out of the store my belly and basket would be full, and HEB has succeeded in their goal of leading me to believe their motto of “HEB. Here, everything’s better”.

Do the promotions and free samples offered in a particular store convince you as the consumer to remain loyal as customer?

Photograph Credit:
Sabrina Segal