Coppell Chronicle Vol. 6, No. 18
Eager Shoppers Camped Outside New H-E-B • Pageant Contestant Promotes Safe Driving • Riverchase Tenants Must Vacate Apartments • Coppell Cowgirls Deserve More Respect
Condolences to the family and friends of Josias David Pedro Aquino, the construction worker who died on Thursday after a trench collapsed under an apartment building in Cypress Waters. The tragedy was covered by a range of media outlets, including The Dallas Morning News, KERA, and WFAA.
I don’t have any information to add to those reports, but the circumstances of Thursday’s incident reminded me of “Firefighters Specialize in Technical Rescues,” an article about Coppell’s bravest that was published in 2024.
Today’s Chronicle happens to include an article about foundation work at another apartment complex. That’s purely a coincidence.
Eager Shoppers Camped Outside New H-E-B
Dallas County’s first H-E-B grocery store welcomed its first shoppers at 6 a.m. on June 17. Some of them showed up more than 48 hours earlier.
Andrea Nida of Dallas arrived at the store within the Irving portion of Coppell ISD at about 10 p.m. on June 14, and Amber Flores of Farmer Branch wasn’t far behind her. They both thought the first customer in line might be rewarded for perseverance, but they weren’t sure.
“It’s really more about the excitement,” Nida told me a few hours before sunset on June 16, when she and Flores had been camped out for nearly two days. “We just love it.”
However, a few H-E-B employees weren’t loving the idea of three nights’ worth of camping outside their front doors. They asked Nida and Flores to stay away until the morning of June 15. Nida followed their instructions and drove home, but Flores opted to sleep in the parking lot of the Home Depot next door. That’s how she, husband Eddie Flores, and their three daughters ended up at the front of the line, with Nida in second place.
Amber was able to stay in line with support from Eddie, whom she jokingly called “our supplier.” Those supplies included a cooler, lawn chairs, and umbrellas. She was accompanied in shifts by daughters Emilie, 11; Randie, 7; and Zarie, 6. Amber said the extreme demonstration of devotion to H-E-B was Emilie’s idea.
“We don’t really know what we’ll win,” Amber told me on June 16. “It’s more about having the experience with her.”
The financial reward for their endurance was a gift basket valued at $500, H-E-B spokesperson Mabrie Jackson said. The Floreses, Nida, and nearly 200 people behind them also received $25 gift cards. And just about everybody who was in line when the doors finally opened got a baseball cap bearing the H-E-B logo and “Irving” in upside-down capital letters. But Emilie was the only customer I spotted wearing an H-E-B nametag.
“They treated her like royalty every day,” Amber said.
Initial customers weren’t the only recipients of gifts from H-E-B. In 2024, when Al Zapanta — then a City Council member, now Irving’s mayor — dared to discuss the store before its existence was officially announced, former Coppell ISD Superintendent Brad Hunt said he was excited because H-E-B is “a huge supporter of public education. I mean, they are putting their money where their mouth is in so many ways.”
(See “Irving Councilman Spills the H-E-Beans” in Vol. 4, No. 5.)
Hunt’s words were prescient. On June 16, the Coppell ISD Education Foundation was one of four local nonprofits that received checks for $10,000 from H-E-B. The others went to Canine Companions, the Irving Family Advocacy Center, and Level Pathways.
The predawn atmosphere outside the store on June 17 was like a party, with a DJ spinning jams by Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars, and Justin Timberlake. When the doors opened at 6 o’clock, the soundtrack was “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang.
Everybody waiting in line made it inside the store by 6:18, and I spotted Nida exiting with a full basket at 6:20. She estimated she spent $100, not counting the goody bag of snacks given to each initial customer.
The first shopper I saw leave the store was a gentleman who walked out with one of those goody bags at 6:08. I wasn’t able to get his name, as he seemed to be in quite a hurry to escape the hullabaloo. When I asked if he bought anything, he said he couldn’t pass up a buy-one-get-one deal on gummy worms.
A Brief Promotional Interruption
There was at least one other Coppell resident besides your correspondent hanging out at the H-E-B on the morning it opened. True to his Citizens on Patrol duties supporting the Coppell Police Department, Dave Schauf kept a watchful eye on the proceedings, making sure nobody got out of line — literally or figuratively. Thanks entirely to him, I own one of the caps that H-E-B gave to the store’s earliest customers.
The thing is, I’m not much of a hat guy, mainly because my shiny dome is a key aspect of my personal branding. So I’m going to deliver that cap to the next person who purchases a paid subscription, which costs $5 per month or $40 per year.
There is so much information behind today’s paywall that a new subscriber will get their money’s worth through this edition alone, he typed without a hint of humility.
Pageant Contestant Promotes Safe Driving
Sunya Ajani will never forget the date of Aug. 23, 2022. Exactly one week after getting her driver’s license, she caused an accident that totaled two vehicles.
As a Coppell High School junior, Ajani was hurrying to get to color guard practice on time. She admits that she was driving fast and aggressively. “I’m not one to sugarcoat it,” she said during a phone interview last week. While turning left from Denton Tap Road to Parkway Boulevard, she hit another vehicle. Although neither she nor the other driver were physically injured, the collision had a profound mental impact on Ajani.
“It changed my life dramatically and led me to lead and educate others about the impacts of distracted driving — aggressive driving — and promote safe driving,” she said during the June 9 meeting of the Coppell City Council.