Twenty-one months after groundbreaking, H-E-B is opening its newest store at 6 a.m. Wednesday, July 22. 

Located on the southwest corner of FM 544 and McCreary Road in Murphy, the store will include a barbecue restaurant with a drive-thru window, deli, bakery, pharmacy and sushi bar. It’s expected to employ 600 partners.

In a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation just before the Nov. 21, 2024, groundbreaking, H-E-B said the store would occupy 122,175 square feet and cost nearly $53.2 million to build. 

The facility also includes a fuel station and car wash of 5,640 square feet costing about $3.3 million, the filing said.

Until now, the closest H-E-Bs to Murphy were on U.S. Highway 80 in Forney, Interstate 30 in Rockwall, Preston Road in Plano, Exchange Parkway in Allen and Eldorado Parkway in McKinney.

Local shoppers have been sharing their excitement about the opening on social media.

“Just moved to Wylie from Houston last month and having shopped at ONLY H-E-B for the last 20+ years, cannot wait for our store to open,” said Cheryl DeLany.

“I’m from a border town down south, born and raised shopping at H-E-B,” said Jojo Guevara. “Now I can say it feels like being back home.”

In addition to the shopping experience, Murphy officials are looking forward to the sales tax revenue as H-E-B joins the Walmart Supercenter as the city’s second big box store.

“We expect the store will draw customers from all around our area,” said Mayor pro tem Scott Smith.

Basic, unprepared grocery items are exempt from state sales tax. But prepared meals, snacks, candy, soft drinks and non-food items are taxed. 

Each month, the city of Murphy gets an allocation check from the state comptroller’s office for two cents out of every taxable dollar spent in the city. The July check, for sales made in May, totaled nearly $450,000.

Based in San Antonio, H-E-B employs over 175,000 partners in Texas and Mexico and serves millions of customers from more than 455 stores. It has been in business for 120 years and has annual sales of more than $50 billion.

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