H-E-B Central Market Management Theory Analysis

Introduction of the Organization In 1994, the current President of H-E-B grocery- Charles Butt- opened the first Central Market. The store was located in Austin. Mr. Butt reached out to John Campbell an employee who had been with the company for over thirty years. Campbell started out at H-E-B as a cashier and moved up the ranks to become an Innovation Officer at HEB. Central market is a division under HEB Grocery which operates independently. The store remains privately owned by the Butt family and is not traded openly on the stock market. The store was called an “amusement park for food lovers”. The store took concepts from European food markets and brought them to Central Market. The store became very popular in Austin, Texas, and an each year about 2 million people visit the store. Following the Austin Central Market’s success H-E-B grocery opened eight new locations starting in the year 2001 with stores in San Antonio, Houston, Plano, Dallas, Southlake, Fort Worth, and a second location in Austin respectively. Central Market offers its customers an atmosphere where they can experiment and try new different foreign foods. They have a very strict product quality checklist. Every item that goes into their store must pass inspection at the store. Unlike H-E-B grocery stores all products that are shipped to Central Market go directly to the store. There is no stop over at the distribution warehouse. During an interview with the Manager in Charge at Central Market in San Antonio product quality was discussed. One instance of product quality rejection at the store involved cherries that were shipped from California. The cherries were driven from California by means of an eighteen-wheeler truck. When they arrived at the store they were not up to par with the quality the store had asked for. The perishable manager at the store rejected the cherries and they were not bought.

Organizational Environments External forces that affect Central Market include things