Walmart, for example, launched a smartphone-based payment system in all of its Houston stores in 2016 to allow customers to bypass the checkout line. Kroger touts its online ordering and curbside pickup service, ClickList, which it introduced at Houston stores in 2016.
In addition, homegrown favorite H-E-B is replacing a store flooded by Hurricane Harvey by moving into the underserved Meyerland area in southwest Houston with a two-story, 95,000-square-foot property. The new store will have a few new perks like a kosher bakery and is scheduled to open in 2019.
Weather Once Again
Houston’s location, while attractive to supermarket retailers and more than 10,000 restaurants, is also subject to extreme weather. This was particularly
evident in 2017: Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on the city, then it contended with storms and extreme cold months later.
The effects of Hurricane Harvey, however, were felt far and wide and will not be forgotten anytime soon. Just ask Shane Barzilla, chief financial officer of third-party transportation broker Tropic Brokers, Inc., whose location on Produce Row was impassable for days.
“Harvey created a lot of insurance claims,” remarks Barzilla. “We had trucks that couldn’t get in, receivers that were underwater for a week, and we even had a truck go underwater where the driver had to swim to safety.”
Drivers: a rock and a hard place
Tropic Brokers lost two trucks out of 50, so it certainly could have been worse. The real aftereffect has been the loss of drivers; unable to bring loads into Houston, many drivers wound up looking for loads going to other locations. And while some have come back, many haven’t.
There weren’t enough drivers to go around before the hurricane, and Vazquez of Latin Specialties notes that finding reliable drivers now is even more of a challenge for any produce company. “As the oil industry comes back to life, drivers in Texas have more choices and demand higher pay,” he says. “Produce companies are caught between a rock and a hard place.”
