B or Kroger: Which grocer has most Houston locations?

It often seems that H-E-B is king around these parts, but the Washington Post's new interactive map shows Houston isn't quite under the thumb of San Antonio's grocery giant. In fact, the grocery store often ranks second or third in the biggest parts of the area.

Tuesday, the Washington Post released a report about the state of the supermarket industry in the U.S. Part of that analysis went towards identifying where the nation's biggest grocery stores held sway. In Texas, there's H-E-B, Albertson's, Brookshire, Walmart and Kroger (and whatever spin offs each of these giants has under their umbrella).

As far as Houston is concerned, the Washington Post's interactive map, powered by data from OpenStreetMap, shows the big three are Kroger, Walmart and H-E-B—usually in that order.

In the past 30 years, there's been some shrinking and consolidation as big-name grocers merge and/or acquire their smaller competitors. According to the paper's analysis, Walmart, Kroger, Aldi (Süd) and Albertsons own a third of all U.S. grocers. That fact alone likely explains the feds hesitation (and outright hostility) towards Kroger and Alberton's proposed merger/acquisition .

Coinciding with WaPo's feature is the Associated Press' news of more Americans choosing to cook and eat at home versus going out to restaurants. It's good news for national grocery chains who've been operating at high profit margins since 2020, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers.