Before the sun came up Wednesday, a spark was already ignited among the crowd gathered outside a brand-new H-E-B store on San Antonio’s far East Side.
Employees walked down the line, which at one point had swelled to more than 1,000 people, to shake hands and share pleasantries.
Nearby, other workers dressed in costumes that looked like food items danced along the sidewalk as music blasted from a loudspeaker.
Kenneth Cotton took it all in but then left rather than stand on his feet for too long.
“The line was humongous. The crowd, the parking lot, it was filled with everybody and everything,” he said when he returned hours later.
Cotton was among those who were anxious for a peek inside the super-sized supermarket, a store now five minutes away from his Converse home.
It was a long-awaited staple for their area, which they say had been without many options for grocery shopping.
“Our choice was to go to La Vernia, which is 20 minutes away, or to FM 78, which is a smaller H-E-B, unfortunately. This is great,” said John Garcia, another late-morning shopper.
Garcia, who has lived in the area for the past 10 years, said shopping had become a chore which always involved traveling.
Lately, he and others have noticed a lot of other people on the move, specifically moving into their area.
The new H-E-B store, they say, is an outward sign of the growth that region has been experiencing.
“It’s amazing how it’s blown up. There was nothing out here,” Garcia said. “All of a sudden, you saw these developments being built, the new homes, it’s just exploded.”
He said on what was once farmland, he has noticed subdivisions sprouting up like weeds.
Johnny McDonald is relatively new to the area, a transplant from California who has lived on the far East Side for about two years.
Even in his relatively short stay, though, the change has not escaped him.
“When I moved into my neighborhood, I would say we had maybe 40 homes,” McDonald said. “But now I would say all through the neighborhood we’re at about 200-300.”
The sound of construction has become commonplace for them.
Images from Google Earth show the dramatic change there, how areas that once were green have been replaced by newly built homes.
The area of growth extends beyond San Antonio city limits. It borders sections of Bexar County, as well as the city of Converse.
“Anything about growth is good,” Cotton said.
He said he is open to whatever changes are in store, including the new store itself.
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