Kroger and HEB are among some of the top grocery stores in the United States. But when you compare the two, which one is cheaper, which one has more products, there are many questions that arise when looking at these two groceries stores. So, I did some research to find out which one of these stores is better for you.
Which is Better: Kroger or HEB? In terms of price Kroger is cheaper for most products compared to HEB. Additionally, Kroger provides much more product variety. However, HEB appears to have higher quality products.
Is Kroger More Expensive Than HEB?
Price point is a very large factor for most grocery shoppers, especially when deciding where to buy their products from. So, when most shoppers are looking at these two grocery stores, they want to know which one is the cheapest.
So, to find out which store is more affordable, I took a look at the most commonly purchased store brand items from both Kroger and HEB. Below is a chart that indicates which store has the cheapest items in each category.
| Category | Kroger Brand | HEB Brand |
| Beverages | ✓ | |
| Baking Goods | ✓ | |
| Canned Goods | ✓ | |
| Dairy | ✓ | |
| Dry Goods | ✓ | |
| Frozen Foods | ✓ | |
| Personal Care | ✓ | |
| Cleaners | ✓ | |
| Others | ✓ |
After looking through the prices of different items, Kroger seems to offer cheaper products in a majority of common shopping categories. HEB only seems to offer cheaper pricing for products in the cleaning category.
So, if you are a shopper that prefers to make purchases at the cheapest/most affordable store, you are better off shopping at Kroger.
Product Quality: Kroger vs HEB
Another big factor that shoppers look at is product quality. Between these two stores, which one has the higher quality products? To get a good idea of which store consistently has better products, I looked at the FDA’s product recall log.
This site provides a list of most of the recalled products from a given store. Looking at this will show which store has had less recalled products, thus showing which one has the higher quality products.
| Category | Kroger Recalls | HEB Recalls |
| Animal & Veterinary | 2 | 1 |
| Biologics | 0 | 0 |
| Cosmetics | 1 | 1 |
| Dietary Supplements | 0 | 0 |
| Drugs | 2 | 0 |
| Food And Beverages | 44 | 20 |
| Medical Devices | 0 | 0 |
| Radiation Emitting Products | 0 | 0 |
| Tobacco | 0 | 0 |
From the FDA’s report it looks as though Kroger has had more recalled products, especially in the Food and Beverages category. This suggests that HEB has higher quality products, as they have had less overall recalls on their products.
Despite this, it is important to mention that both of these stores are of high quality. Both of these stores have dedicated teams for quality assurance, constantly making sure that they are providing high standard products to their customers.
It just so happens that HEB has had less recalled items in recent years.
Product Variety: Kroger vs HEB
Some grocery shoppers like to have a variety of products to shop from. They prefer stores that provide an ample quantity of items for them to browse through. When comparing these two stores, which one has a wider variety?
To begin, both are considered supermarkets, which means that they just provide food, beverages, and other household items. This means that they provide the same type of shopping categories as one another.
After looking through each store’s categories and products, it seems that Kroger has a wider variety of products. More specifically Kroger offers almost 70,000 products to shop from, whereas HEB only offers around 18,000.
This means that Kroger offers almost 4 times as many products as HEB. So, if you are a person that loves to have a wide variety of products to shop from, then Kroger is the store you should choose.
Which Has More Locations: Kroger or HEB?
While both are prominent stores, how many locations does each chain have? According to their respective company websites, Kroger has about 2800 stores throughout the United States and HEB has about 340 stores.
This means that Kroger has 8 times the amount of stores as HEB. Not only does this show how much more dominant Kroger is, but it also shows that Kroger has much more reach throughout the US, which gives them a much larger customer base than HEB.
| Kroger | HEB |
| 35 States | 1 State |
Another thing to note is that Kroger operates in 35 states, throughout all regions of the US. Whereas HEB only operates in Texas. HEB does have certain locations in Mexico, it seems that they have not expanded outside of the Lone Star State.
Who Pays More: Kroger or HEB?
While this is a bit less relevant to the average shopper, it is interesting information; which grocery store pays their employees more. I looked on Indeed.com to find out what the average employee at each store was making, here is what I found.
| Job Title | Kroger Wage/Salary | HEB Wage/Salary |
| Cashier | $9.07/hour | $13.79/hour |
| Stocker | $10.51/hour | $11.78/hour |
| Assistant Manager | $40,278/year | $37,645/year |
| Store Manager | $54,978/year | $47,556/year |
From the research, it seems that HEB pays more for their cashiers and stockers, whereas Kroger pays more for their assistant managers and store managers.
This is a bit surprising to see. I would expect Kroger to pay more for all of these positions. Because they are so much larger, I’d expect that they would have more money to flow into their wages and salaries.
Which One Should You Shop At: Kroger vs HEB?
If you are a shopper that prefers cheaper items and a large amount of product variety, then you are better off shopping at Kroger. However, if you prioritize product quality, then HEB will likely be your better choice.
For most shoppers, Kroger is a much better fit as they offer superior value in almost all categories.