So, there has long been talk about making the Riverside HEB into an HEB-Plus. My previous encounter with this sort of HEB was the Slaughter and Manchaca location. They basically took an HEB about the size of the Riverside store and added a little bit of space on it so they could fill it with Walmart style cheap stuff. I wasn’t really looking forward to the remodel until I met to pickup Stella from her grandparents at the Leander HEB-Plus a few weekends ago. It is visually appealing. It has a nice cafe. It does not look like a Walmart crammed into an HEB. So I was excited about getting an HEB-Plus at Riverside again. Julie says she won’t be visiting, but they’re building a bike path under Riverside so I’ll probably head out there once that’s done (and I finally purchase a helmet).

Then this week we drove by on the way to some theatre and noticed the Burger King is gone. My conversations about the HEB upgrade used to go like this:

Me: They’re going to upgrade the HEB at Riverside to an HEB-Plus.

Them: Where are they going to put it.

Me: They’re going to take over the parking lot behind the store.

Them: There’s a Burger King there.

And they always said it with finality. Like the fact there was a Burger King there meant that there could never be any change. Ever. So the Burger King is gone. And they have tons of construction permits and HR posters all over the place. It looks like they’re finally building it.

Here’s hoping for one of the nice stores. Coupled with light rail that HEB could probably become the HEB for central austinites who can’t afford Whole Foods. Does anyone else have any hope that they’ll build a nice store there?