A recently retired HEB employee reveals the biggest misconceptions people have about the brand and its private label products. That’s why she’s unabashedly partial to the Texas retailer.
TikTok founder Brittany (@briztx) released a “very long public service announcement” last week. “I have something to confess,” she said. “I have been working collectively at HEB for 17 years.”
Four of those were spent in the store while she was in high school and college. After completing her degree, she took a few years off before returning to HEB to work in purchasing and food development.
Brittany retired from HEB in June of this year. Not because she no longer loved the job, but because she was a survivor of two different cancers and decided to focus on her family, which includes three young children.
“You just have to step back and take a minute to breathe,” she said, while acknowledging the incredible support HEB gave her during her five-year battle with cancer.
What does the former HEB employee like about the brand?
Brittany’s work with food development teams gave her insight into how grocers offer products sold under their private label names. “This is the team that creates products under all the brands like HEB, Central Market, Hill Country Fair, Higher Harvest, etc.,” she said. “So, of course, I have a bias about HEB’s products. Regarding the quality, flavor and expectations of what’s on the shelf. I would say that several other grocers don’t have that bias when it comes to their private label products.”
She admitted she was “deeply biased” and said her own family would attest to that fact. However, she says there’s a good reason for that. “You know so much about the ingredients,” Brittany said. “You know all too well the effort and the energy that goes into doing something. But HEB also cares. They care about customers. They care about feeding Texans. Because at the end of the day, health and happiness are the most important. But true food insecurity and being able to afford food is the most important.”
The “biggest” misconception about HE-B’s own brand
Brittany then brought up what she believes are the most common misconceptions on the topic. “Nothing upsets me more than when I hear people say, ‘I mean, all food is the same. They just put their name on something,'” she said. “No, no, no. When I tell you the caliber and expertise of the people who work at HEB. It’s astounding. A lot of people don’t even know this agency exists. But there are food scientists who work at HEB. These are the people who went to school for food development.”
She continued, “HEB has food science. There are chemical engineers working at HEB. These are very talented, very smart people who put products into these brands. They don’t just put labels on the products. There are standards. I’m not going to reveal confidential information, if you will, and I’m not going to reveal all of their trade secrets. But I’m just going to say, HEB is on a level of its own.”
She said HEB has more than 13 of its own production facilities. This allows it to produce many food products sold under its own brand. “I think the biggest misnomer is that a lot of people think Frito Lay makes HEB’s potato chips, but that’s not the case,” she said. “HEB has its own chip and ice cream manufacturing plants. These are not recipes that HEB has reverse engineered. These are recipes that food scientists have engineered [research and development] Team working in the laboratory. “
What impact does this have? “Is Blue Bell unsafe now that it’s taken off the shelves?” she said. “HEB is here to stay. And it’s safe for customers to eat. HEB is leading the way in removing artificial flavors from ice cream. So I think there’s a lot of things that consumers don’t know. That’s what HEB is.”
Audience Reaction to Texas Women’s HEB PSA
In the comments section of the video, viewers made it clear that Brittany isn’t the only one with a healthy dose of HEB love coursing through her veins.
“You make me want to leave public education and go work at HEB,” one person wrote.
“I drove past over 10 stores to get to HEB,” said a second viewer.
“HEB doesn’t care about us as customers, they care about us as people,” a third person wrote. “Their actions mean so much: helping the community, the environment, employees and more.
All Hip Hop reached out to Brittany for comment via TikTok comments and private messages.
@briztx A long PSA that no one asked for but it weighs heavily on my heart. This is a love letter I wrote to HEB as a former partner. HEB is always on people’s lips, with a lot of opinions and incorrect facts, so I wanted to clarify a few things here! Without giving away confidential information – gosh, can I go on about all the things the public is wrong about? #heb #texas #food #themoreyouknow #branding @HEB ♬ Original Sound – Brittany
