Joe V’s Smart Shop is working on not one, but two openings for the Greater Houston community and its visitors. The discount grocer is expected to open near the City Park community and in Humble, according to the Houston Business Journal. The brand’s website confirms that the upcoming locations will be at 1227 W. Orem Drive near Highway 288 and 19611 US-59 near Interstate 69, with plans to open both in 2027.
“With work already underway, the 57,000-square-foot stores are expected to open next year – with the Humble location in early 2027 and the Orem Drive store in late 2027,” the company’s website reads.
“Joe V’s Smart Shop is an innovative price format focused on offering the freshest, highest-quality products at the best prices including fresh produce, in-store cut meats, breads and tortillas made in store, and sushi made daily.”
In addition, the two new Joe V’s Smart Shop locations will also be the first to offer H-E-B South Flo Pizza.
“The freshly made pizzas will be handcrafted in-house daily as an available grab-and-go meal option,” the H-E-B Newsroom blog reads.
“These locations will also offer Home Delivery to serve even more customers throughout the community and surrounding neighborhoods.”
H-E-B is the company behind the brand.
What Now Houston reached out to H-E-B Chief Operating Officer Roxanne Orsak to find out more about the exciting two new additions to the community. Unfortunately, we did not hear back by the time of this publication.
“At Joe V’s Smart Shop by H-E-B, we’ve always had one goal in mind: Keep prices low and quality high,” the Joe V’s Smart Shop website reads.
“We work hard to do this everyday. Each of our stores carry many of the high-quality, fresh products H-E-B is known for, at even lower prices. That’s smart shopping. That’s Joe V’s Smart Shop by H-E-B.”
Orsak is widely credited as the executive who originally came up with the discount concept. She wanted to build a lean, high-efficiency store format specifically tailored to help budget-conscious families. Joe Villarreal, the Director of Operations and Innovation for Joe V’s and who the brand is named after, worked directly alongside Orsak to design and develop the business model. His career journey—starting as an H-E-B night janitor in the 1980s and rising to corporate leadership—inspired the chain’s name and its mascot.
The brand launched in the summer of 2010 in Houston, emerging in the wake of the Great Recession to serve price-conscious households on tight budgets. H-E-B designed the stores to offer high-quality fresh produce, meat, and bakery goods alongside an efficient product selection of fewer than 10,000 SKUs (stock-keeping units), balancing discount pricing with a clean, upbeat shopping environment.
After operating exclusively as a Houston-area staple for over a decade, Joe V’s opened its first DFW location in Dallas in June 2024. The chain now operates multiple successful stores across the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth metroplexes. There are now 14 Joe V’s Smart Shop locations operating in the United States, all of which are located in Texas, with 11 stores in the Greater Houston area.
Joe V’s Smart Shop is anticipated to open at 1227 W. Orem Drive near Highway 288 in early 2027 and at 19611 US-59 near Interstate 69 in late 2027.
(This is a developing story. As more information is made available, we will update this article. Stay tuned!)
