H-E-B’s $50B Empire Rolls Out Touchscreen Gas Pumps Across 455 Texas Stores

Stand at a new H-E-B fuel pump in Forney, Texas. The first thing you notice is the massive 27-inch interactive screen, glowing where a tired credit card reader used to be. Before you choose your fuel, the screen asks for your phone number. That order is intentional.

H-E-B, a grocer with more than $46 billion in annual revenue, invested millions upgrading fuel stations for a reason beyond cheaper gas. The pump greets you by name. What it does with that information shapes what happens next.

A 120-Year-Old Company Moving Like a Startup

H-E-B opened its Forney store on January 28, 2026. This nearly 131,000-square-foot flagship is part of a growing wave of new locations in the DFW metroplex. Converse saw a $21 million grocery store paired with a $4 million fuel facility.

San Marcos, Bee Cave, and Denton are in construction or planning phases through late 2026. Each of these new stores features Dover Fueling Solutions’ Anthem UX platform. The platform earned PCI Secure Software Certification in June 2025, locking down security before most of these sites broke ground.

The Loyalty Trap at the Pump

Most people assume gas stations make money selling gas. That assumption is fading in Texas. H-E-B’s Anthem UX pumps connect directly to the DX Rewards loyalty system, prompting for a phone number to unlock personalized promotions and real-time offers on the 27-inch touchscreen. The fuel itself may be a loss leader. The phone number is the product.

H-E-B ranked as America’s number-one grocery store for a fourth year, ahead of Amazon and Costco. That ranking depends on customer data, and now the pumps are the newest collection point.

The Screen That Watches Back

A phone number goes in, a personalized coupon appears, the tank fills, and the next stop is the grocery store for the item just offered at the pump. Each step feeds H-E-B’s AI personalization engine, learning from customer behavior.

Since 2018, nine e-commerce fulfillment centers have opened to process this behavioral data. The fuel transaction becomes a voluntary data submission. The 27-inch screen becomes the interface. The discount becomes the exchange. About 70% of H-E-B customers are considered Promoters and willingly participate.

Why Walmart Can’t Copy This

Anthem UX is not proprietary technology. Dover Fueling Solutions sells it to any retailer. Walmart could purchase it tomorrow; Kroger could install it next week. They have not. Walmart manages more than 4,700 U.S. stores across legacy systems in 50 states.

Kroger operates over 2,700 stores with multiple banners. H-E-B controls 455 stores in Texas and Mexico under unified infrastructure. Fewer variables allow faster execution. The technology is available to all, but the ability to deploy it at scale across a coherent network is the advantage few can match.

The Numbers Behind the Screens

H-E-B’s Net Promoter Score is 63. The grocery industry average is 37. That 26-point gap represents millions of customers who actively support the brand, and now those customers are entering their phone numbers at the pump.

The Denton Robson Ranch fuel facility cost $1.5 million for eight pumps and a car wash, about $187,500 per pump. This is not a typical gas station investment. The cost is closer to luxury retail build-out, buying customer intelligence at the point of maximum engagement: when someone stands still for three minutes with few distractions.

The Ripple Hitting Every Competitor

GSTV, the gas pump video network, expanded its reach by 10% through a Casey’s partnership, bringing content to 14 million additional Americans monthly across 29,000 locations. The digital pump market is accelerating industrywide. H-E-B is the only regional grocer connecting pump screens directly to grocery loyalty data.

Smaller independent fuel retailers cannot afford Anthem UX-level investment. National chains cannot deploy it coherently. The competitive pressure goes in one direction. H-E-B widens the gap while others debate modernization. Traditional pump hardware manufacturers face commoditization as value shifts from metal to software.

A New Rule for Grocery Retail

This technology upgrade sets a new precedent. Regional grocery chains now recognize that fuel station modernization is a loyalty platform investment, not just operational maintenance. H-E-B’s mission says, “make each and every person count.” Applied to fuel pump data integration, that phrase gains new weight. Every person is counted. Every transaction is logged.

Every phone number links to a grocery profile, feeding into an AI engine running across nine fulfillment centers. Seeing the pump as a data collection node, rather than just a gas dispenser, changes the perspective. The fuel retail model has inverted.

The Clock Running on Everyone Else

H-E-B continues its rollout through 2026 and into 2027, with flagship locations leading adoption across the 455-store network. San Marcos targets a Fall 2026 opening. Denton’s fuel facility is under construction through November 2026. Each month without a competitive response from national chains widens the data advantage.

Walmart and Kroger are expected to attempt regional pump deployments. Independent fuel retailers may form technology consortiums to share costs. H-E-B built the infrastructure first. In data-driven retail, the company with the earliest behavioral dataset wins.

What Your Phone Number Buys Them

H-E-B employs over 175,000 people and generates more than $46 billion in annual revenue. The company has turned the routine task of filling the car with gas into a voluntary intelligence briefing. The fuel pump now functions like a grocery checkout aisle: a captive moment where a customer with little to do becomes a customer ready to engage.

This checkout aisle remembers a name, fuel grade, visit frequency, and which coupon will bring someone into the grocery store next. Understanding this earns an advantage in any conversation about the future of retail.

Sources:
H-E-B Newsroom — “H-E-B opens store in Forney, continues growth in North Texas” — February 3, 2026
MyNeighborhoodNews.com — “New H-E-B Grocery Store and Fuel Station Coming to Converse” — February 5, 2026
Dover Fueling Solutions — “Dover Fueling Solutions’ Anthem UX Platform Achieves PCI Secure Software Certification” — June 26, 2025
Perishable News — “H-E-B Holds Top Spot in dunnhumby’s Annual Grocery Rankings” — June 12, 2025
QuestionPro — “H-E-B NPS & Customer Satisfaction Score in 2025” — April 9, 2025
Adweek — “GSTV Expands Footprint of Gas Pump Video Screens by More Than 10% With Casey’s” — September 24, 2025