San Antonio's H-E-B family tops Forbes list of richest billionaires

BILLIONAIRE ROLL CALL

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According to Forbes, half of all of the world’s billionaires are less wealthy than they were in 2022. That might be true for San Antonio's richest billionaire Charles Butt, but that’s not the case for most other San Antonio-area billionaires.

The 2023 edition of Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List declared Butt's net worth at $7.5 billion, placing him as the 299th richest person in the world. The HE-B Chairman's current fortune is much lower than his 2015 net worth of $12.3 billion, which is when he last appeared on Forbes radar.

Three other Butt family members are first-time entrants on Forbes list. Eleanor Butt Crook, the 90-year-old heiress to the H-E-B grocery fortune, has a net worth of $2.8 billion, making her No. 1067 on the list. Forbes lists her residence in San Marcos, right in between San Antonio and Austin. H-E-B CEO Howard Butt III and Central Market leader Stephen Butt also made the list, both tied for No. 1575 with the same net worth of $1.9 billion.

Other San Antonio-area billionaires that made Forbes 2023 world’s richest list are:

Investor Christopher Goldsbury: tied for No. 1627, $1.8 billion, unchanged from last year
Healthcare founder James Leininger: tied for No. 1725, $1.7 billion, unchanged from last year

One name missing from Forbes 2023 report is former San Antonio Spurs owner Billy Joe "Red" McCombs, who passed away in February. McCombs founded Clear Channel Communications and was the namesake of the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. He is survived by his three daughters, as well as eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin's richest billionaire Elon Musk has a net worth at $180 billion, which is $39 billion less than his 2022 net worth of $219 billion. The Tesla and SpaceX founder is the richest person in Texas and second richest person in the world, wedging his way between No. 1 Bernard Arnault of France (overseer of the LVMH empire of 75 fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora), with a net worth of $211 billion; and No. 3 Jeff Bezos, the American Amazon founder, worth $114 billion.

Oil tycoon Jeffery Hildebrand tops the wealth leaderboard in Houston as the city's richest person with a $10.2 billion net worth. His 2023 rank in Forbes' report is No. 171.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones'$13.3 billion net worth won him the title of Dallas' richest person, and the 12th richest sports owner on Forbes' "World's Richest Sports Owners 2023." His net worth is up from $10.6 billion last year.

The Fort Worth-based Walmart family heiress Alice Walton earned a spot on Forbes’ list as the third richest woman in the world. Her fortune is pegged at $56.7 billion, down slightly from $65.3 billion last year.

Photo courtesy of H-E-B

H-E-B giving away 250,000 reusable bags for free on Earth Day

NO STORE DOES MORE, HONESTLY

Yet another reason why H-E-B is the best grocery chain in the world. H-E-B brand stores all over Texas will be giving away 250,000 reusable bags on April 22 as part of their annual Earth Day tradition to reduce single use plastic among its customer base.

Visitors at any H-E-B, Central Market, Joe V’s Smart Shop, and Mi Tienda in the state have been able to get a free Earth Day-themed bag since 2008, amounting to over three million bags within 15 years.

The annual bag giveaway event will begin in all stores at 10 am while supplies last. Customers who would like to own more of the “Our Texas, Our Future” Earth Day bags can purchase them for just $1.50 each.

Many H-E-B Partners are celebrating Earth Day in their own way by volunteering for clean-up or tree planting events, or by hosting in-store events for customers. Select stores will even host family-friendly "Environmental Education Scavenger Hunts" with EcoRise, a local sustainability organization in Austin. The self-guided tours will allow children to learn how H-E-B protects the environment, and how they and their families can get involved with eco-friendly practices.

Earlier in April, H-E-B rolled out new environmentally-conscious initiatives to boost the company’s commitment to reduce waste while maximizing eco-friendly choices in local communities. Some of the new measures include revamping plastic bag collection bins, introducing a new curbside plastic bag collection system, and switching their plastic cutlery to biodegradable versions at all stores, restaurants, and business locations.

Additionally, students from 600 Texas elementary schools participated in H-E-B’s yearly “School Plastic Bag Recycling Challenge” and collected over four million plastic bags. The winning schools that collected the most plastic bags will receive H-E-B gift cards.

The San Antonio region elementary schools that won H-E-B’s challenge are:

Randall Fields Elementary
Hopkins Elementary
Lyndon B. Johnson Elementary

H-E-B also partnered with Keep Texas Recycling to choose six projects to distribute their 2023 Community Recycling Grants, totalling $157,000. The grants will fund improvements for better access to recycling and developing educational resources for nearly 350,000 Texans in Pharr, Ingleside, Cuero, Texas City, Burleson County, and San Angelo.

More information about H-E-B's sustainability initiatives can be found on their website.

Photo courtesy of Picadas

First Mexican hard aguas frescas brand splashes into 200 H-E-B stores across Texas

JOY JUICE

San Antonians take their aguas frescas seriously. Look at the controversy when TikToker Gracie Norton called the beloved drink “spa water.” Still, locals are not likely to argue should one want to throw in a little booze.

Now entrepreneur Hugo Martinez has taken beloved Mexican flavors out of vitroleros and into cans with Picadas, a line of hard aguas frescas. Each can combines real fruit juice with cane sugar alcohol for a product that’s sure to take Fiesta by storm.

Martinez conceived the brand while completing an MBA at Stanford University. A fan of seltzers, he realized the category was missing a taste of home. After returning to Monterey, Mexico in 2021, Picadas was born.

“I became a seltzer enthusiast when I took my first sip, but I was searching everywhere for one with Mexican flavors. Tamarindo, Limonada... the stuff I grew up drinking,” Martinez explains via a release. “Coming from Mexico, we never sacrifice flavor.”

The name comes from the phrase “con piquete,” Mexican slang for “spiked.” Each 12-ounce can rings in at 130 calories with 4.5 percent alcohol by volume. The drinks can be enjoyed alone or amped up with tequila or mezcal.

Currently, the line is available in three flavors — mango, limonada, and guava. Every six-pack, retailing at $10.99, comes with a packet of spicy chile-lime salt to dress the rim. Texans can stock their fridges at 200 H-E-B stores statewide.

Photo courtesy of H-E-B

H-E-B seeks Texas' best for 10th annual high-stakes competition

ADD TO CART

For nine years, H-E-B has been a star maker. Through its annual Quest for Texas Best competition, small companies have become literal household names, filling pantries across the state. Now, a new crop of products has the chance to be crowned as the high-stakes contest seeks entries for its 10th anniversary year.

H-E-B has announced that the Quest for Texas Best is taking applications from February 22 through April 6. Small business owners and entrepreneurs across the state can submit their unique and innovative products to win a combined $70,000 in cash prizes and the opportunity to feature their products on H-E-B shelves.

Since the competition started nine years ago, H-E-B has discovered over 960 exceptional products across the Lone Star State. These have included various food and non-food items, including cookies, coffees, beauty items, toys, home goods, and even roasted crickets. The contest has awarded nearly $2 million in prize money and provided valuable marketing, mentoring, and supplemental support to its winners.

San Antonio has been well-represented among the winners. Humble House Foods, Grain4Grain, and La Familia Cortez Restaurants have all nabbed third-place spots. Though Alamo City finalist Puro Nitro didn't make it all the way in 2022, the winner — low-sugar sauce maker I Love Chamoy — undoubtedly found its way into more than a few local grocery carts.

To be considered for the contest, interested suppliers and manufacturers can submit details about their products online between February 22 and April 6. After the Call for Entries period is complete, H-E-B's Business Development Managers will select the top applicants who will present their products before a panel of judges chosen by H-E-B on August 9 at Fair Park in Dallas.

The panel of judges will determine the top four winning products and award $25,000 to the Grand Prize winner, the title of "Texas Best," and placement on H-E-B store shelves. The first-place winner will receive $20,000, the second-place winner will receive $15,000, and the third-place winner will receive $10,000.

"As we continue to expand the opportunities for small businesses in Texas and diversify our supplier base through programs like Quest for Texas Best, we look forward to seeing what our fellow Texans bring to the judges' table during the 2023 competition," said James Harris, Sr. Director of Diversity & Inclusion and Supplier Diversity for H-E-B, via a release.

Photo courtesy of H-E-B

H-E-B celebrates superfans in new lighthearted commercial series

H-E-B gets it

Ben Affleck having more fun at Dunkin' than at the Grammys. Maya Rudolph hawking candy-coated clams. Tubi creating the most disarming horror villain since M3gan. For better or worse, Super Bowl ads get people talking. No wonder a hometown grocer would want to get in on the game.

In H-E-B's latest bid to prove that "no store does more," the San Antonio-based grocery giant debuted two Big Game ads riffing on its fandom's unyielding passion. In the series titled "If You Know, You Know," friends of H-E-Buddy go to great lengths to enjoy the company's signature products.

A couple wearing hats large enough for Pharrell to appreciate sneaks That Green Sauce into a stadium. A driver buckles up her precious little one — a tub of Creamy Creations ice cream. And a traveler presents a suitcase filled with flour tortillas to airport security (TSA also featured this one on its social media channels this week).

To add some pathos to the vignettes, Dallas-based Plot Twist Creativity scored the commercial to the immortal LeAnn Rimes hit "How Do I Live." (Or at least, we think it was Rimes' version. Trisha Yearwood also released the song in 1997 for Con Air. It was a whole thing.)

Though exaggerated for comic effect, the sentiment isn't that far from reality. Since launching the H-E-B family of brands in 1992, the company now has thousands of privately labeled products. At least in Texas, they helped transform store brands from dreary black-and-white generics to covetable items of their own.

Of course, few regional grocery chains have as much fun with branding as H-E-B. The fandom now gobbles up items like tortilla-scented candles and onesies for H-E-Babies. The customer zeal regularly helps the corporation land on national lists like dunhumby's recent survey of best U.S. grocers.

"At H-E-B, we appreciate that our customers have come to know and love our H-E-B brand products," sums up Ashwin Nathan, H-E-B Group Vice President of Marketing. "The love and fanaticism that H-E-B customers have for our brand and our products is like no other, and we think many of our loyal H-E-B fans will see themselves in these commercials."

Missed the championship game/ Rihanna pregnancy announcement? H-E-B says the commercials will air in select Texas markets through February.

Photo courtesy of H-E-B

H-E-B reclaims top spot in annual survey of best U.S. grocers

H-E-B Forever

Shawn Mendes and Camillo Cabello called it quits. The word “cheugy” became a thing. Addison Rae got a Netflix deal. Lots of bummer things happened in 2021. But for San Antonians, no greater indignity was suffered than H-E-B falling behind Amazon on dunnhumby’s Top U.S. Grocery Retailers list.

Thank goodness that’s all behind us. The consumer research firm recently released its 2022 Retailer Preference Index report, a survey of over 30,000 consumers. Once again, H-E-B took the throne, besting more than 60 grocers ranging from giants like Walmart to beloved regional chains like Wegmens.

To arrive at the rankings, dunnhumby zeroed in on five sectors of customer preference: price, promotions and rewards, quality, speed and convenience, digital, and operations. H-E-B scored near the top of three drivers — price, quality, and digital.

H-E-B slipped to the second spot in 2021 due to that all-too-familiar bogeyman — the Covid-19 pandemic. Quarantines and other outside pressures made timesaving and a seamless eCommerce experience more critical to the average shopper.

With pandemic concerns receding, H-E-B’s overall quality and leadership in price, promotions, and rewards have moved to the top of customers’ minds. Meanwhile, the hometown hero has managed to close the digital gap.

Dunnhumby recognized the shift by naming H-E-B in its inaugural survey of the best online grocery retailers in the U.S. in July 2022. In that study, the San Antonio-based chain received high scores for ease in ordering and payments, on-time deliveries, and accuracy in charges, among other metrics.

However, the reason locals keep giving H-E-B its flowers may be more intangible. The retailer has made a name for itself by supporting small Texas companies and supporting community causes, particularly education. And, of course, its fleets are among the first to act during statewide emergencies.

As dunnhumby’s online study stated in 2022, “It is worth highlighting the regional grocer has the best emotional connection … out of all of the retailers in this study.”

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San Antonio had the 3rd largest population increase in the U.S., new Census report says

POPULATION REPORT

We already know things are changing in Texas at large, but how about San Antonio? Now, six out of the 15 most populous cities in the United States are in the Lone Star State, and the Alamo City had one of the largest numeric population increases in the nation. The U.S. Census Bureau's latest findings add more validity to reports that less people are interested in living in the city proper, and are seeking residence in the suburbs.

San Antonio added nearly 18,900 new residents between July 2021 to July 2022, bringing the city's total population to nearly 1,473,000. That put San Antonio at No. 3 on the list of numerical increases (as opposed to proportional growth). For scale, the report lists Austin at 1.0 million. Fort Worth took the top spot with its gain of 19,170 residents, and Phoenix, Arizona earned No. 2 after adding 19,053 to its population count.

The top 10 cities with the largest numeric population increases are:

No. 1 – Fort Worth, Texas
No. 2 – Phoenix, Arizona
No. 3 – San Antonio, Texas
No. 4 – Seattle, Washington
No. 5 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 6 – Jacksonville, Florida
No. 7 – Port St. Lucie, Florida
No. 8 – Cape Coral, Florida
No. 9 – Houston, Texas
No. 10 – Georgetown, Texas

New Braunfels also earned a nod in the report for being the No. 13 fastest growing city in 2022, and crossing the 100,000 population threshold. The city grew by 5.7 percent, adding up to 104,707 residents.

In an overall analysis of the 15 largest American cities in 2022, San Antonio ranked No. 7. Houston was the only Texas city that ranked higher at No. 4 with its population of over 2.3 million people. Dallas came in at No. 9 with a population of just under 1.3 million, and Austin barely made it into the top 10 with a population of 974,447 residents. Fort Worth ranked outside the top 10 at No. 13, with a population of 956,709.

The top 10 most populous American cities are:

No. 1 – New York City, New York
No. 2 – Los Angeles, California
No. 3 – Chicago, Illinois
No. 4 – Houston, Texas
No. 5 – Phoenix, Arizona
No. 6 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
No. 7 – San Antonio, Texas
No. 8 – San Diego, California
No. 9 – Dallas, Texas
No. 10 – Austin, Texas

The report additionally discovered that housing inventory skyrocketed by 1.6 million units between 2021 and 2022. Texas had the third fastest housing growth with a rate of 2.3 percent, versus Utah, which had the fastest growth at 3.3 percent.

San Antonio didn't make the cut in the list of the 10 most populous U.S. metro areas (as opposed to the cities, themselves), but Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ranked No. 4, and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land ranked No. 5.

The full report can be found on census.gov.

The Disney Immersive Experience is now offering sensory-friendly viewings

A whole new world

The Disney Immersive Experience at Lighthouse ArtSpace San Antonio has found a way to be extra inclusive for Disney fans.

Starting on Saturday, June 17, there will be three sensory friendly viewings of the Disney Immersive Experience (you can purchase tickets for the specific sensory friendly performances here).

So what does a sensory friendly viewing entail exactly? For starters, the volume of the show is reduced for a more comfortable viewing experience for guests with special needs.

Other accommodations for the sensory friendly viewing include comfortable gallery lighting (and there will be no blackouts like there are in the regular showings), reduced guest capacity, sensitivity warnings at certain potentially agitating moments in the show, and quiet areas outside of the gallery (where the show takes place) so guests can take a break if the noise is too overwhelming.

After the first sensory friendly viewing on Saturday, June 17, the remaining two sensory friendly performances will take place on Sunday, July 16, and Sunday, August 13.

Every sensory friendly viewing will take place at 10 am. Make sure to select the correct time slot when booking tickets (the sensory friendly performances are also marked 'sensory show' on the online booking calendar.) The sensory friendly viewings are also priced exactly the same as the regular viewings.

The Disney Immersive Experience will be housed at Lighthouse ArtSpace until August 13, 2023, and tickets are still available for regular showings as well as the sensory friendly viewings.

:Inclusion is important to us with all of our offerings, but all the more so with Immersive Disney Animation, which is truly an exhibit where everyone should feel welcome," says Lighthouse Immersive producer Corey Ross via release. "These viewings reduce the sensory output of the show to offer a relaxed environment and judgment-free zone where the wonderful worlds and characters of Disney Animation Studios can be enjoyed by all.”

Here are the top 7 things to do in San Antonio this weekend

Weekend Event Guide

Musical moments are certain to fill the air in the Alamo City for the next several days. Catch songstress Erykah Badu in concert or catch a Ryan Adams & The Cardinals show. Fiesta Noche del Rio promises ample dance and musical performances for the entire family to enjoy. Check out the top seven things to do in San Antonio this weekend. For a full list of events, go to our calendar.

Thursday, June 8

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals in concert
Americana music stars Ryan Adams & The Cardinals return to Austin for a live show at The Espee. Fans of the “Now That You’re Gone” band can expect the same hits with a new line-up of Adams, Brad Pemberton, Chris Stills, Daniel Clarke, and Don Was. Get seating information on Ticketmaster.

Friday, June 9

Broadway in San Antonio presents Riverdance
Irish dancing takes center stage at Majestic Theatre. Audiences will enjoy a production complete with traditional music and Riverdance’s famous style of energy and rhythmic expression. Shows are scheduled through June 11. Explore ticket availability at broadway.com.

Tobin Center for the Performing Arts presents Dreamgirls
Free movie nights continue at The Plaza at the Tobin Center with this week’s screening of the 2006 film Dreamgirls, starring Jennifer Hudson. Lawn chairs and blankets are encouraged for a more comfortable viewing experience. A full bar and concessions will be available onsite. Admission to this screening is free and open to the public.

Alamo Kiwanis Club presents "Fiesta Noche del Rio"
The Alamo Kiwanis Club hosts the Fiesta Noche del Rio series for another summer season at Arneson River Theatre. Highlights include mariachis, flamenco guitar, dancing, costumes, food, and more. Get tickets and a full series schedule at fiestanochesa.com.

Saturday, June 10

Briscoe Western Art Museum presents Masoud Yasami's cloud painting workshop
Painter Masoud Yasami engages in conversation and guided instruction at this special evening of art. Registration includes supplies for the session and the chance to glean expert guidance on painting clouds. This event is open to participants of all skill levels. Sign up for the session at briscoemuseum.org.

Sunday, June 11

National Geographic Live: Cosmic Adventures with Tracy Drain
Get lost in scientifically-backed stories of the cosmos as told by aerospace engineer Tracy Drain. Guests will learn about Drain’s engineering challenges and scientific discoveries from the Kepler mission, as well as exclusive accounts of the Psyche mission. For ticket information visit tobincenter.org.

Erykah Badu in concert
Erykah Badu, widely known as the “Queen of Neo Soul,” performs live in concert at the AT&T Center. The voice of chart-topping songs such as “Bag Lady” and “Didn’t Cha Know” makes a stop in San Antonio in support of her Unfollow Me tour. She will be joined by Yasiin Bey. Get more information on Ticketmaster.

Photo courtesy of Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu will play in San Antonio on June 11.

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