jewel bush
The war for the most New Orleansest grocery store in Mid City has been waged.
Winn-Dixie’s grand opening pomp and circumstance have included giveaways of all sorts, folks in patriotic-esque costumes meandering around the grocery – to add to the celebratory atmosphere, I suppose – and a saxophonist serenading produce shoppers to add Big Easy flair among other jazzy gimmicks.
Not to be upstaged by the new kid on North Carrollton Avenue, Rouses Market had a brass brand – tuba, trombones, trumpet, snare drum — playing near the store’s entrance, a block party hosted by WWOZ and a Sunday Gospel Brunch.
This grocery store face off is not your ordinary marketing push. Rouses is delivering a hardcore message: “You can try your best Mid City accent, but if you’re from Florida, we’ll know it ten tables away.” This is just one of the talking points in Rouses’ “You’re Either Local or You’re Not” campaign.
The Thibodaux-based, family owned business has grown to become the largest independent grocer in Louisiana and isn’t going to allow out-of state chains to move in on its market share. Rouses pulled the Katrina card reminding the Mid City community who was here first; post-Katrina first: “Our Carrollton store was the very first Rouses Market we opened in New Orleans. We wanted to be part of rebuilding Mid City.”
What a way to tug on our heartstrings, Rouses.
In New Orleans, making groceries isn’t a mere shopping outing. It’s a way of life to be protected and preserved. That’s why locals still dotingly reference the bygone days when Schwegmann Giant SuperMarket was king and K&B drug stores dotted the Orleans landscape.
As a locavore, I love the pithy, jocular messaging: “We’ll take a snowball over a snowcone, and Bud’s, Brocato’s and Parkway over a national chain everyday!” I love being able to purchase locally harvested seafood, veggies, and homegrown products like Boudreaux’s Butt Paste (even though I don’t have a need for it) at Rouses.
The promotional shenanigans make it all the more interesting like having the dancing man from the New Orleans second line scene in a boogie battle against the Kool-Aid character in the Rouses deli. This entire in-store attraction is a stretch in the New Orleans significance arena, but it’s fun and campy nonetheless. And grocery store wars are supposed to be fun and campy, right?
Antics and entertainment aside, let’s hope the Rouses vs. Winn-Dixie competition portends well for consumers’ pockets because that is where the battle will be won – or lost.
jewel bush, a New Orleans native, is a writer whose work has appeared in The (Houma) Courier, The Washington Post, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles Magazine, and El Tiempo, a bilingual Spanish newspaper. In 2010, she founded MelaNated Writers Collective, a multi-genre group for writers of color in New Orleans dedicated to cultivating the literary, artistic and professional growth of emerging writers. She is currently communications coordinator for Service Employees International Union Local 21LA. Her three favorite books are Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Catcher in the Rye, and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
My vote goes to Rouses!