re: Rouses in BR: amazing to watch the decline in quality of the store on Drusilla

quote:

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Then, magic! LeBlanc's comes in and turns the place into heaven on Jefferson

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The independent grocery stores (Hi Nabor, Reeves, Calandro's, LeBlanc's Matherne's, Dorignac's, Rouses, etc.) in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans area actually have a disproportionately high market share relative to other similarly sized cities.

I think that's because of a combination of factors:
1. The more unique diets of south Louisiana gives locally owned stores a built in advantage with a preference for locally sourced seafood, coffee, etc.
2. The road network makes it a real bitch to service stores in southern Louisiana from a DC in Houston or Atlanta - which as sort of shielded a lot of independent stores from more robust national competition.
3. Baton Rouge-based Associated Grocers has an advantage in location, and they seem to serve most of the indie stores in south Louisiana. Rouses was a member store before they started their aggressive expansion. I thought they switched to Supervalu like Albertson's but I could be wrong. They are not AG anymore.

It's interesting to see how the big regional or national chains handle the area. Other than Wal Mart, the only major chains that have expanded in the area are specialty stores or higher ends like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.