re: Going to Tony's is like a damn chore

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Redemptorist has also gone from a 4A school to a 2A school in the last seven years. It's not going to close anytime soon but it's trending that way.

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RHS was the easiest school I ever attended

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The reason seafood places fail in SBR is because middle class white people eat raw seafood seasonally. Lent and a little past that.

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This is what I was hinting at in my last post. Tony's has a large portion of their clientele that can eat seafood almost every day of the week.

And I agree with all you have said.

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Most of you people fail to realize a big factor in opening a market in SBR. The reason seafood places fail in SBR is because middle class white people eat raw seafood seasonally. Lent and a little past that. Crabs have not been plentiful enough in the last few years to support a poor crawfish season unless you ship them out of state. So Crawfish is your main driver, other seafood are only a small portion an this areas market sales.




I can also drive down to my camp and buy shrimp straight off the boat for $2 a pound or pay $6+ at a market. I don't eat crabs but it's pretty easy to catch more than you can eat with a string and chicken neck.

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This is if someone has a camp and is making a trip to their camp anyway.

I used to get this complaint all the time at my seafood market. Why can I get shrimp/crabs so much cheaper at the docks? I even had people look at my prices, get mad, and say something like "you are ripping people off with those prices. I can get them in Dulac/Grand Isle/etc for $2/lb." I tried to explain to some of the customers (the ones who would listen and not storm out of my place all pissed off) that there are several factors why it's higher. For one, transportation costs are high. You can't expect someone to deliver to you 100lbs of fresh shrimp (and fresh shrimp only lasts 2-3days max quality wise to be able to sell them retail so you can't buy large quantities to save money) a day for the dock cost. Someone has to pick it up and deliver to you. Fuel is high and they have to make money. Also, shrimp is not a huge volume seller in markets. Most customers buy 1-5lbs at a time. In a day you may be lucky to sell 100lbs of fresh or thawed out shrimp. You can not support your business on say $1.00/lb or less profits. Rent is high and $100 a day profits is not going to pay your rent,electricity,insurance,labor, etc. So that shrimp started out at $2.00/lb, but the guy has to deliver and charges $3.00-$3.50/lb. You have to mark it up from there and still pay your bills. If you mark it up at $5.00/lb that's still only $1.50/lb profit you are making. That's still not a ton of money.

With crabs, you have to mark it up a lot to just break even. Crabs die so easy and you end up having a lot of waste with crabs. Most markets don't make money off of crabs. It's just something to bring in customers during the off season for crawfish. Most of these markets only make money during crawfish season.

Another question I used to pose to some customers was "yea you can pick it up in Dulac, but how much gas does it cost you to get there?". Some people think they are saving money to drive 4-6 hours in a day to buy 20lbs or more of shrimp. Add in that gas cost of $50-$100 or more and you aren't saving anything and you are costing yourself a day's trip to drive down there.

I didn't mean people were getting ripped off at $6 a pound. I buy in bulk about twice and year and freeze them myself which saves a lot of money. I'll also pick them up for family/friends if I'm already headed down there.

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$6/lb in BR is not a ripoff, it's the going rate I have no problem in paying for fresh Gulf shrimp. Happy to pay it in fact to support local fisherman. I refuse to buy that frozen crap at Albertson's and whereever with shrimp from who knows where.

Now $13.99/lb at Whole Foods? Gets a chuckle out of me every time.

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I agree about Whole Foods. Their prices are up there and their clientele pays it.

And I wouldn't buy shrimp at an Albertson's either.

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didn't mean people were getting ripped off at $6 a pound. I buy in bulk about twice and year and freeze them myself which saves a lot of money. I'll also pick them up for family/friends if I'm already headed down there.

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What you are saying makes sense and is smart.

Not everyone uses your logic and planning though.

I'll take you crabbing ll

Jason, I was a regular at your place and dearly miss those $5-6 fresh shrimp. Now I buy from the guy on Coursey selling out of his driveway, they are good, buy he's $1-2 over what you sold for. But I'm addicted, I buy them.

As I said, if Tony's had a store in SBR they would have to tone down the spice level for the bland lovin' white folks.

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My point is that as a market in SBR, you need the clientele who will buy any and all seafood year round, because the criteria of the program they are on allows them to buy it. SBR has it in pockets, but there are too many seafood markets to tap this.

NBR doesn't have this issue.

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I got your point. It's called Louisiana purchase card/food stamps. That is what I was hinting at too. Some of the biggest volume seafood users/markets in New Orleans are also in the worst areas.

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The meat counter at Alberston's usually has gulf shrimp. The seafood is labeled with the source, such as "Gulf - Prev. Frozen" or "Taiwan - Frozen".

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True. And most of the time it says India or China. I've stopped bothering. I'd rather let a local biz like Tony's earn my money.