𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗦𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗜𝗧𝗦 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗟 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗧𝗢𝗪𝗡 𝗛.𝗘.𝗕. 𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗧𝗦 𝗗𝗢𝗢𝗥𝗦

                             

Baptist Preacher Howard E. Butt, Jr., pics of downtown H.E.B.

It's not that H.E.B. has been a horrible community partner.  They haven't, especially considering the 5% donated before profit to charities.  

By any reckoning, the grocery chain started by Florence Thornton Butt in 1905 Kerrville, has been a success, particularly after Florence's youngest son, Howard Edward Butt, Jr., took over in 1919, but Hell, name any other grocery chain totally dominating a city's business with ONLY one competitor, Walmart! You won't see that anywhere else and H.E.B. is raking in millions with an enviable bottom line.

Still, H.E.B. made a shortsighted, myopic decision in closing their East Elizabeth Street store, a move by which the hardshell Baptist Butt family essentially executed the soul of historic, downtown Brownsville.

Yes, the old store was unconventional; no backroom, no warehouse, just cramped aisles and a few checkouts. Deliveries came in the front door and were gone as quickly as they arrived. But with a little ingenuity, an escalator for carts, a second floor added like shops in Europe do, H.E.B could have preserved something irreplaceable. The store didn’t have everything, but it had enough. And more than that, it had loyalty. It had heart. 

Corporate decision-makers, hundreds of miles removed from the daily rhythms of Elizabeth Street, showed a stunning lack of imagination. Their spreadsheets could tally dollars per square foot, but failed to measure human need, historical resonance, or the goodwill that could have rippled outward by staying the course.  Despite the store's small footprint, it pulsed with energy, fueled by foot traffic from “across," and its parking lot was perennially full, though many didn’t come by car.

Brownsville’s downtown deserved better. The people deserved better. In a city where history lives in every brick and on every corner, losing the downtown H.E.B wasn't just a retail loss, but the loss of soul, of place, of possibility, a short-sighted decision with a negative impact on our town.