Overnight at the Wimberley H-E-B

While you are tucked into your bed at night, snoring away, the overnight crew at H-E-B is busy baking donuts, scrubbing the floors and unpacking box after box after box.

The Wimberley H-E-B store opens at 6 a.m. and closes at midnight, but there’s activity 24/7. Actually, about 80 percent of the stocking is done by the night crew. There’s usually about 25 people working overnight in the store, but that changes day to day. There are more workers, for example, for a busy Saturday and fewer for a slow Monday.

Outside, the store may be dark, but the smell of baking bread tells you there’s something going on inside.

The night crew’s job is to get everything ready for the first customers of the day. That means the fresh donuts and kolaches need to be out there, the old bakery products removed, the produce refreshed and the grocery shelves stocked.

“We want the morning items available as people are waking up and getting into the store,” explains Eric Govea, the store director.

Stocking the shelves is highly organized. The stockers — many listening to music through earbuds — are expected to unpack at least 65 boxes of groceries an hour. That sounds like a lot, but a box could contain one item or be filled with a couple dozen rolls of, say, paper towels that can be picked up and put on the shelves in one swoop.

“You don’t have time to goof off when you are trying to get the store up and running,” says Eric.

Once a stocker completes his or her quota, they are expected to shift to another aisle and help out.

A supervisor keeps track of the number of boxes that are emptied. For most of the workers it’s not a problem. Sometimes newer people don’t hit their quotas, but, once they become familiar with product placement, they get the hang of it.

The champ

The champ of the Wimberley store is Jonathan Hoshino, who can unpack up to 65 cases an hour while supervising a crew, training new employees and keeping track of the team’s output. “Jonathan gives 110 percent,” says Eric. “He’s well known around H-E-B and there are a lot of other stores who would like to have him.”

There are competitions for stockers and Jonathan has come home with his share of trophies.

All that unpacking produces a lot of cardboard — 700-800 pounds a night. The used boxes are bundled up and shipped to H-E-B’s recycling center in San Antonio.

Most of the stocking has to be done at night, says Eric, “because there’s just no room.” Every night 20 or more pallets clog the aisles. The produce section is piled high with tomatoes, lettuce and apples, leaving only a couple feet to squeeze by.

The Wimberley H-E-B — one of the smaller stores in the chain — has six large trucks a day making grocery deliveries, plus countless smaller trucks. Most of the major deliveries come overnight while many of the vendors who sell products like beer, snacks, soft drinks and buns stock their products during normal business hours. There’s a meat truck that arrives at 2 a.m. and another between 8-9 a.m.

All the store’s beef is butchered in house. Because of health concerns, the chicken is cut in H-EB’s San Antonio plant. Half the pork is cut locally and half comes from San Antonio. The butchers start arriving around 7 a.m. and the butcher department closes at 8 p.m.

The overnight shift is not for everyone. “The turnover is huge. I don’t know how many people I have had who quit after the first night. It’s partly because of the physical work and partly because of sleep,” says Eric, who has worked for H-E-B for 23 years.

When an applicant for an overnight job is interviewed they are told that sleep is essential. Countless times Eric has looked down an aisle and seen a worker slumped over, with head down, fast asleep.

The shifts are staggered with some workers arriving at midnight, some at 4 a.m. and some at 5 a.m. Many have second jobs during the day or attend school.

Some damage

There’s going to be damage when working at top speed. Bags of cookies are going to be sliced open, cans are going to be dropped and dented, pickle jars are going to shatter on the floor.

“We have three bins for damaged items,” says Eric, holding his hands about three feet apart to show the size of the bins.

“They drop some, but not as much as you would think. Of course, pasta, dried beans, things like that get sliced open a lot,” he adds.

At 33,000 square feet, the Wimberley store is considered small. Eric estimates the Kyle H-E-B Plus store is 100,000 square feet. While Wimberley might employ 25 people overnight, Kyle could have 100 stockers. Wimberley employs 157 people overall, versus 400 or so in Kyle.

The cooking — which is highly automated — goes on pretty much around the clock. For example, Camille Engle operates a large oven with a dozen chickens turning on a rotisserie. She places a probe into each chicken and the computer displays a green or red dot depending on the doneness. Camille’s chickens will be used for lunch items such as chicken salad. Chicken products more suited for dinner will be cooked later in the day.

During the nighttime hours, Vivian Roberts makes dozens of boxed salads, also for the lunch clientele.

It’s the same in the bakery, the 10-15 dozen donuts and 60 loaves of bread are made overnight while the baguettes get baked during the day shift.

So the next time you are pushing a shopping cart down the aisle, think of those people who stock your corn flakes, bake your kolaches and roast your chicken. They are most likely at home asleep. They’ll be back tonight.