Shortly after becoming owner of his mother's small store, Howard tried four expansions into Central Texas, including one in Junction, all of which failed.

[30] The company operates several manufacturing facilities in Texas, including one of the largest milk- and bread-processing plants in the Southwest.

[31] H-E-B produces many of their own-brand products, including milk, ice cream, bread, snacks, and ready-cooked meats and meals.

The chain is now composed of 10 stores – three in Dallas, two in Austin, and one each in Fort Worth, Houston, Plano, San Antonio, and Southlake.

The stores offered several new departments, including Do-It-Yourself and Texas Backyard, and greatly expanded product categories in baby, card and party, cosmetics, entertainment, housewares, and toys.

Several other locations were later added, including stores in Flour Bluff, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Burleson, Bastrop, Beaumont, Belton, Boerne, Katy, Killeen, Victoria, Waxahachie, New Braunfels, Kyle,[40] Laredo, Leander,[41] Mission, Rio Grande City, San Juan, San Antonio,[42] Pearland,[43][44][45] Copperas Cove[46] and Hutto.

Mi Tienda, which means "my store" in Spanish, sells Mexican baked goods: a tortilleria, where employees make tortillas, and a carniceria providing marinated cuts of chicken, beef, and pork.

[citation needed] In 2010, H-E-B opened 'Joe V's Smart Shop', a low-cost grocery chain featuring discounted items.

[56] In the mid-1980s, local grocery chains Handy Andy and Centeno joined a lawsuit against H-E-B citing unfair pricing practices.

[57] H-E-B eventually settled the suit out of court with Centeno in 1998 for $6.5 million and with Handy Andy for an undisclosed settlement amount.

[58][59] H-E-B has paid $12 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit accusing the San Antonio-based grocery chain of Medicaid fraud.

Since at least 2006, according to the suit, H-E-B allegedly submitted to Texas Medicaid inflated prices on thousands of claims for prescriptions it filled so the company could obtain higher reimbursements than allowed.

[62] H-E-B coordinated donations to relief efforts in the wake of a fertilizer plant fire and explosion in West, Texas.

The company donated $50,000 to the American Red Cross and launched a checkstand campaign benefiting the organization to get the community involved in the relief effort.

The company said in a news release 100% of the donations from the campaign will support the American Red Cross's disaster relief efforts.

[64] In addition, H-E-B's Mobile Kitchen and Disaster Relief Units distributed 10,000 hot meals to volunteers and victims in the affected areas in Texas.