H-E-B Brings its Lower-Priced Joe V’s to Southern Dallas

The most Texan of grocery chains is posting up in two Southern Dallas neighborhoods under its Joe V’s Smart Shop banner.

Joe V’s, a subsidiary of H-E-B that provides low-priced foods, is planned for the Red Bird/Duncanville area, at 4101 West Wheatland Road, to open in late summer 2024, the Dallas Morning News reported. A second one will open in spring 2025, at 5204 South Buckner Boulevard in the Pleasant Grove area.

The Wheatland Road location will comprise 58,000 square feet in the adaptive reuse of a long-shuttered Albertsons that H-E-B bought in January 2022. The South Buckner property, which it bought in 2014, spans 11 acres, where a brand-new store is planned. These are the first Joe V’s to open outside of Houston, where the format was founded in 2010.

Joe V’s are typically about 55,000 square feet and half the size of most H-E-B locations. The subsidiary was created for neighborhoods that are densely populated but aren’t growing, H-E-B chief operating officer Roxanne Orsak told the outlet.

Seeing Joe V’s instead of H-E-B might raise eyebrows in communities like Pleasant Grove and Red Bird, where major grocers have underinvested in the past. H-E-B opened its first suburban Dallas stores last year, and its high-end Central Market brand opened its first Dallas location in 1994. But all of those are north of Interstate 30, where population is denser and incomes are higher.

“Like any of our stores, we have to earn our growth and our reputation. People have to become familiar with our Joe V’s brand,” Stephen Butt, H-E-B board member and president of the company’s Dallas-based Central Market division, told the outlet.

The company attests that it still delivers fresh products under its Joe V’s banner even though prices are lower. With inflation causing many consumers to pursue lower-priced food items, Joe V’s has posted the fastest-growing sales of any H-E-B format.

—Quinn Donoghue