Looks like HEB’s plans for Dallas are starting to take shape. The San Antonio grocery store chain, whose parent company also owns Central Market, is actively working toward opening stores in Dallas. We’re the last major market in Texas where the chain doesn’t have any stores. I have had this confirmed by two people in the wine business who work with HEB, and two more people in the Texas grocery store business.

Last month, a story in the San Antonio Business Journal hinted that HEB was focusing on Dallas, but the company quickly backpedaled. But, from what I have been told, HEB is now looking for sites for stores (around seven acres), isn’t especially worried about taking business away from Central Market by putting an HEB nearby, and would actually prefer to open near a Walmart. One of the grocery retailers told me that the company is taking resources from other parts of the state for its expansion into Dallas.

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Obviously, none of this is official until HEB says so. Still, given what I’ve been told by people who are in a position to know, HEB is much further along in its plans for Dallas than must of us realized.