Target vs H-E-B: Same Grocery Basket, Priced
On October 19, 2026 we priced a fixed basket of 14 staple groceries on target.com and heb.com, the two US retailers whose online listings let us verify near-complete baskets. Two items would not line up the same way at both stores: rice (neither store exposes an exact 4 lb long grain white rice price) and bananas (Target prices them per piece, H-E-B per pound).
That leaves 12 items priced the same way at both stores. Target totaled $42.28. H-E-B totaled $43.05. The gap across a whole basket is $0.77, and each store won six of the twelve items. The honest conclusion is that neither store is cheaper in general. Each is cheaper for specific items, listed below.
H-E-B is a Texas chain, so treat this as a Texas-versus-national comparison. Both sets of prices are regular online list prices checked the same day; your local shelf prices can differ.
Where Target wins
Milk, 1 gallon: Target $2.99, H-E-B $3.86. A gap of $0.87 on the most common item in the basket. (H-E-B's own Hill Country Fare gallon was $3.46, which narrows it, but the headline H-E-B brand gallon is $3.86.)
Eggs, 12 count: Target $1.49, H-E-B $1.67. Butter, 8 oz: Target $3.29 for its European style salted butter, H-E-B $3.97 for Land O'Lakes Butter Balls. The butter comparison crosses brands, so treat it as the cheapest verifiable 8 oz salted option at each store rather than the same product.
Cheddar, 8 oz block: Target $1.89 for Good & Gather sharp, H-E-B $2.98 for a Kraft block. H-E-B lists a Hill Country Fare 8 oz cheddar at $1.87 with the form unspecified, which would flip this item if it is a block. We score it for Target on verified blocks and flag the uncertainty.
Plain yogurt, 32 oz: Target $3.29 for Good & Gather Greek nonfat, H-E-B $3.56 for Dannon whole milk plain. Different styles, similar role. Spaghetti, 16 oz: Target $1.29, H-E-B $1.78 for its Organics line, although H-E-B's thin spaghetti was listed at $1.12, the cheapest pasta price we verified anywhere this week.
Where H-E-B wins
White bread, 20 oz: H-E-B $0.98, Target $1.69. The biggest percentage gap in the basket. Ground beef, 80/20, per pound: H-E-B $5.99, Target $7.39, a gap of $1.40 a pound, and H-E-B's own ad had a Texas-Size Pack at $4.49 a pound this week.
Chicken breast, per pound: H-E-B $3.49, Target $3.99. Both lose to this week's ad prices of $1.99 a pound at Aldi and Kroger, which is the recurring story with fresh meat: the ad cycle matters more than the store.
The small items: russet potatoes, 5 lb, H-E-B $2.97 against Target $2.99. Coffee, 12 oz, H-E-B $8.98 against Target $8.99. Yellow onions, 3 lb, H-E-B $2.82 against Target $2.99. Pennies each, but they show H-E-B's store brand produce and pantry pricing is genuinely competitive.
The items that would not line up
Rice: Target sells its Good & Gather long grain white rice in several sizes under one listing priced as a range, $0.89 to $6.89, and the exact 4 lb price cannot be isolated. H-E-B does not list a priced 4 lb long grain white rice bag at all. Rather than substitute a different size and pretend it matches, we leave rice out of the totals and say so. The closest verified rice price this week was Walmart's Great Value 5 lb bag at $3.52, listed through Walmart's Instacart storefront.
Bananas: Target charges $0.29 per banana. H-E-B charges $0.36 per pound, and Walmart's verified price was $0.50 per pound. A typical banana weighs about a third of a pound, so Target's per-piece price works out higher than H-E-B's per-pound price for average fruit, but the two cannot be totaled honestly without weighing the bananas, so bananas stay out of the 12-item totals too.
Walmart, Kroger, and Aldi: partial data, honestly labeled
Walmart is the largest grocer in the US and the hardest to price from outside. On October 19 we could verify only a few fresh Walmart prices: bananas at $0.50 a pound and frozen boneless chicken breast at $3.28 a pound. Listings for milk, butter, bread, ground beef, cheddar, yogurt, spaghetti, and coffee either did not appear or conflicted between older copies of Walmart's own pages, so we publish no Walmart basket total. A total built on stale prices would be worse than no total.
Kroger is regional by design: prices sit on banner sites (Dillons, Smith's, QFC, Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer) and in regional ads. Verified this week: milk at $3.39 regular at Dillons and $2.49 on weekend ad in the Southeast, butter at $2.99 at Smith's, onions at $2.89 at QFC, and chicken breast at $1.99 a pound on ad. That is a strong ad program, not a checkable everyday basket, and we report it as such.
Aldi publishes no checkable online prices in the US. A third-party in-store price check by FinanceBuzz, published in mid-October 2026, found Aldi ground beef at $5.29 a pound, cheddar block at $1.95, Greek yogurt at $2.79, and bananas at $0.49 a pound, each competitive with or better than the Target and H-E-B equivalents. One publication's store visit is not a price list, so Aldi stays out of the totals, but the signal matches Aldi's reputation.
How to use this comparison
Do not pick a store from the $0.77 headline. Pick per item: Target for milk, eggs, butter, cheese, yogurt, and standard spaghetti; H-E-B for bread, beef, chicken, and the small produce items; whichever chain is running the meat ad for whatever goes in the freezer. The basket you actually buy decides which store is cheaper for you, and it changes with the ad cycle.
Method: regular online list prices at target.com and heb.com, checked October 19, 2026, per-lb items counted at 1 pound, packaged items at the stated basket sizes. Ad prices are labeled with their dates wherever they appear. We repeat this comparison as the tracker matures and as more stores become checkable.
The cheapest store is the one that is cheapest for your basket, not the average one. Grocery Spending Tracker compares prices across your own receipts and stores automatically. Start free with 5 scans a month.