WE’LL BUY THAT

Favorite Texas supermarket unsurprisingly bags Grocer of the Year award

In a move that likely won't surprise Texans, a national industry pub names H-E-B Grocery of the Year.

H-E-B

The one-time H-E-B catchphrase “If you’re not from here, you just don’t get it” doesn’t seem to ring true any longer. As the San Antonio-based grocer’s reputation spreads beyond the borders of the Lone Star State, H-E-B recently bagged an award from one national industry publication, in part, thanks to its pandemic response.

Grocery Dive, which follows news and trends shaping the grocery industry, named H-E-B Grocer of the Year for 2020 as part of its annual Grocery Dive Awards, noting the chain’s “pandemic response this spring showed it could move mountains.”

Pandemic panic buying and purchase limits on must-have products like toilet paper and disinfecting wipes may have left COVID-weary Texans concerned that here, everything might not be better. But in truth, Grocery Dive points out, H-E-B’s emergency-preparedness team had been tracking the evolution of the virus since January, communicating with suppliers and manufacturing plants, and generating novel ideas for how to combat the novel coronavirus’ impact on supplies chains and Texans’ shopping list.

“As a result of all these efforts, H-E-B maintained a steady hand amid the chaos that eventually struck Texas and the rest of the U.S.,” Grocery Dive says, adding that H-E-B was one of the first chains in the country to institute social distancing and traffic-metering safety measures.

Other resourceful actions H-E-B has taken during the pandemic — doubling the markets in which its Favor delivery service is available, upping its Meal Simple game, and partnering with local restaurants to provide shoppers with special packaged meals — helped tip the scale in H-E-B’s favor for the Grocer of the Year designation. The publication also applauds the company's employee wage increases and bonuses at a time when other grocery chains faced salary cuts and potential layoffs.

“The 115-year-old grocer is well-known as a whip-smart operator and a customer favorite, having won just about every recognition and award under the sun,” Grocery Dive notes. “And yet, it still managed to outperform expectations during one of the most challenging periods the grocery industry has ever experienced.”

In addition to Grocery Dive naming H-E-B Grocer of the Year for 2020, other notable Dive Awards include Jack Sinclair — the CEO of Phoenix-based supermarket chain Sprouts Farmers Market, which has two San Antonio locations — being named Executive of the Year, and ubiquitous e-commerce giant Amazon being named Distributor of the Year.

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

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