H-E-B — Local services in Houston

also posted on Yelp

This two-star-AT-BEST experience included an employee who had the audacity to mention religion. So you know I had to get on here.

Long story short, after getting all our groceries, we chose the closest checkout lane to us that wasn't express, unloaded our cart, and waited our turn. I was organizing our items on the conveyor belt (snacks last so I can keep an eye those bad boys) and making sure I put a border bar after them and my reusable bags in front of all of our stuff - including two reusable HEB bags 'cause we're loyal like that.

The cashier, Nicholaus M, and his bagger were finishing up with the customer before us, sending them off with a friendly goodbye and thank you. Then everything got silent....except for the quiet-ish greeting from my son.

My son doesn't work at HEB though. We were doing our shopping together. Neither the checker nor the bagger greeted me nor did they return my son's greeting.

The cashier and his bagger did their job on our groceries while having an animated conversation with each other. They were clearly buds, but they were 100% going out of their way to say nothing to us or even make eye contact.

Nowadays, this lack of comportement from employees at this "level" doesn't phase me, regardless of what the employee looks like. I come from a different generation, and when I had similar jobs I did them with more respect for myself and for my employer. Period.

But the obviously adopted blaccent coming out of these two HEB employees' mouths, while they chose to ignore at least one person in this transaction who was no doubt of Sub-Saharan African descent--namely me--just has to be part of this Yelp. I'm surprised they didn't throw in some Tejano Spanglish along with their African American Vernacular English, just to dig a knife into my Blaxican son. No love for La Raza, I guess.

It gets worse though. I mean, seriously I wanted to run for cover from the lightening bolt I thought was going to come from sky.

The bagger started talking about Eid to his cashier buddy. E-I-D. Eid, the festival marking the end of Ramadan which is expected to be celebrated at the end of this month. The bagger was going on about how excited he was for all the feasting he was about to do, AND HE SAID ALL OF IT IN SPOT-ON BLACCENT.

Uh-unh Booboo. I mean, he didn't get into how "screamin'", "bussin'" or "fire" that spread was "'bout to be" at Eid. But still....

You mean to tell me, with all that blaccent coming out of that bagger's mouth, he thought it was appropriate to mention religion while dissing customers of color right in front of him? One of whom just so happens to be a dark-skinned African American--of Texan heritage, thank you very much? How is that living in peace according to any religion's tenets, except maybe satanism?

And then at the end of the transaction the bagger kinda-sorta shoved my remaining usable bags in our cart without a thank you or a goodbye or anything. What a caracicature of Black urbanity.

His "homie" at the cash register was no better. All he said loudly enough during the entire transaction was my grocery total, a "here you go" when he handed me my receipt - followed by NO RESPONSE to my thank you after I gently took it from him - and then he muttered something under his breath that kinda-sorta sounded like a "have a good day". But seriously he might as well have had a hand over his mouth it was so inaudible; I might've even been imagining things.

Never again at this HEB. Mimicry is the highest form of flattery, but not like what my son and I experienced.

Aight, I'm out then. Be easy,...

Let me start by saying I've been shopping at this HEB since i was a kid, and have always had a usual clean, expected experience. Which is why this bothered me so much. I ordered a cake from the bakery, with a weeks time. I took a picture of the cake i wanted in the catalogue, and circled it on my phone, my kids picked it out for their birthday, we asked the gentleman to order this cake, he wrote up our cake order, and we specifically asked, "This is ok, right? Ya'll can do this, no problem?" He responded, "Yes, of course." Great, we left and returned 6 days later to pick up the cake, i could immediately tell it was wrong from 20 feet away. Thry brought me the cake, and i told the young lady, that their was a mistake, that wasnt the cake we ordered. She apologized, and asked if I'd like a manager, i said yes. I explained to my daughter that things happen, and the cake would still be delicious, everyone can make a mistake. That is, unless you're the gentleman that took my cake order, according to the female manager that came to talk to me. She said "Hi, so there is no way he told you we can make that cake, because it has an edible image, and he's been here for 7 years, everyone knows we cant make cakes with edible images. So i'll gove you your discount, but it wasn't our fault.".

I was furious, i just explained to my daughter that we all make mistakes, and this woman was adament that the mistake was ours. My daughter was with me when i ordered the cake, the mistake was not ours, i had 3 witnesses, and me present when we ordered the cake, the gentleman that took our cake order wasnt there when i went to pick up the cake. I told the manager, "No ma'am, thats not acceptable, part of good customer service is accepting that its possible that you made the mistake, before even trying to figure out how a mistake was made you immediately blamed me. How can you be adamant that this gentleman is incapable of making a mistake?" She responded with "Thats ok." She left, brought a discounted sticker to put on the cake, and i mentioned to her that my daughters name was misspelled on the cake, so she mentioned it to the young lady that asked me if i wanted a manager in the first place, and she ROLLED HER EYES ALL THE WAY TO THE BACK OF HER HEAD. My daughter and i both looked at each other in complete awe, as if i was asking for a favor. All I wanted to get what i was paying for, and that was obviously a huge problem. I took the cake since it was still a princess cake, (wrong one but still), and had the flavors my kids wanted. As soon as i got in the car, i immediately called the store and asked for a store manager, Gabby took my call, and allowed to explain my situation and was very understanding, she offered me a full refund, the cake i bought for free, and the right custom cake for free. I thanked her for listening to my complaint, and mentioned to her that i was going to have to call corporate to let them know how disappointed with my experience i was. Although, i declined the free custom cake, (it would've been too much cake) i did accept the refund. I also never called corporate because in the end, the store leaders apologized for their subordinate's behavior, and made things right with me. My one star is for this experience only, it does help that the store leaders made it right, but they wouldn't have to had make it right if the experience was correct in the first place. I will continue to shop here, but the experience was so out of left field, it was honestly an experience i expected to...

My second review for this place. Nick helped me shop this time and I give him a 5 out of 5. It's like he was trained how to help a blind person shop. I didn't have to coach him at all. Except to tell him to tell me what was around, so we didn't walk too far in one direction for something. This was Friday, August 30th. Now I am commenting on my experience. I just had today Sunday, the day before Labor Day. This experience is a one star. Both mom and I, who are blind when in today to request service with help shopping and we were told flat out by the manager working today that they don't offer that service and then we're told that they were too busy. So she offered to help by going back there to get a couple items for us. Of course, it would take just about as much time. It's actually shopping with whoever This experience is a one star. Both mom and I, who are blind when in today to request service with help shopping and we were told flat out by the manager working today that they don't offer that service and then we're told that they were too busy. So she offered to help by going back there to get a couple items for us. Of course, it would take just about as much time. It's actually shopping with whoever. So $13 in Uber rides later. I am back home and very dissatisfied with my experience today at this location. What she told us was flat out wrong, but I decided to take the l. And not cause a scene, but if the owner of this location is looking at this, you definitely want to train every single manager you have that indeed. You do offer help. Shopping 2 blind individuals not satisfied, but we'll continue going to this location because it is the best one around. Hope I have better service next time frowning face. Oh, and just to clarify, if we were told, we'd have to wait for 30 minutes or an hour, that's not optimal, but of course we would have done that we. Weren't even given that as an option, just to be clear.I recommend this location highly. I used to shop for a time at the 10 100 beach nut location. And that 1 is awful, maybe not now, but I don't know for sure. It's been over a year. I specifically would like to take the time to call out. Julian, he was solid my mother and I are both blind and he helped us shop. He spent almost 2 hours with us, even though we only ended up spending $155 solid service. So if there are any blind people reading this review that Location on West timer is the best one to go to for service. I got shitty service at 10 100 beach nut location. In my personal opinion, h Eb is cheaper than Walmart and Kroger. It's the best place to shop for food at and the produce is fresh. Unlike at the 10 100 beach nut location And I have to put in a plug for the hev Delhi, so much better salami, than Walmart, that...