HEB ended up creating HEB Pantry, which were smaller stores and started opening them up in Houston. I didn't care for them as I was used to their full sized stores in Corpus Christi, but they did the job and HEB became successful in the Houston market. None of the Pantry stores remain, they've all been replaced with new full sized stores.
http://www.bizjourna...ry4.html?page=all
interesting tidbit from that article:
The two Central Market stores in Austin have become a tourist attraction of sorts, drawing in more than 1.5 million visitors a year, second only to the state Capitol in terms of Austin tourist attractions.
boggles my mind that a grocery story is a tourist attraction.