ANTONIO, TX - As our industry continues to discuss the newest generations of shoppers, teens are graduating from high school and carrying any grocery loyalty parents have passed to them along to college. End-of-year festivities are well underway, and it looks like H-E-B is doing something right as teens make lasting memories during this impressionable time.

I would love to have been there when the newly opened H-E-B in Cibolo, Texas, got a call from a mom asking if her daughter and friends could do a prom photoshoot among its grocery aisles.

“We were really excited about it,” Dawn Ridge, 17, told My San Antonio. “We were able to have fun pictures instead of the basic ones out in nature. Plus, we all love H-E-B.”

The change from a typical “photos under a gazebo” also meant the girls, Alyssa Dusbabek, 17, and Evelyn White, 17, and Ridge in total, gained much more attention than the typical likes one might anticipate on social media.

“I want to thank H-E-B for allowing us to come in for this kind of special circumstances,” Candice Ridge, mother of Dawn and photographer of the shoot, told the news source. “It was really awesome, and we all appreciate it.”

Not two weeks later, the grocer made local headlines again by winning TikTok, this time as its Belton store honored senior student employees with a small graduation ceremony. Upon writing this, the video has 14.4K likes and over 200 shares—quite a jump from a 2020 H-E-B grad video of just over 6,700 likes—with commenters expressing pride and love for the store.

Students can be seen wearing store name tags with their graduation stoles, and I can honestly say if I had such an experience at my high school gig, I would have a hard time shopping anywhere else. As it is, the same San Antonio news source noted how parents are looking forward to their own teens potentially having the same opportunity working with the retailer.

When it comes to building up a legacy of loyalty, this grad season has certainly showcased H-E-B ahead of the curve.

H-E-B