July_Aug_2015_FINAL_62215_bleedless REV

THE GULF COAST • ROUSES HISTORY

HELPING THE GULF COAST GROW Donny Rouse We opened five stores in Lower Alabama over the course of five weeks in 2014. Every community we serve is different, and every store we open is local down to its neighborhood, but when it comes to food, on the Gulf Coast, we’re really all the same. We love to eat. We boiled over 30-thousand pounds of Louisiana crawfish the first month we were open. We sold more chicken and andouille gumbo, more seafood gumbo, more boudin and hogshead cheese in Alabama that month than we did in all of NewOrleans.We had trucks pulling in with Chappapeela Farms pork from Husser, Louisiana and fresh lamb and goat from Royal Family Farms in Crystal, Mississippi. Trucks headed to our stores in Louisiana and Mississippi carried Alabama’s famous Conecuh sausage — it’s great on a biscuit. We always make it a point to bring products from one area we serve to another. Ali Rouse Royster The most fun we have is opening a new store. It’s a ton of work, and it’s challenging being in the nitty-gritty of it all and making sure everything is ready to go, especially in the days leading up to an opening. But it’s worth every minute. We had over 100 customers lined up outside our first store in Alabama half an hour before we were scheduled to open.They were as excited as we were. Donny Rouse Our newest store in Denham Springs near Baton Rouge opened this January, and we have new stores opening in Baton Rouge next year.We have a long-term commitment to helping the Gulf Coast grow, which means creating jobs and supporting our local farmers, fishermen, ranchers and manufacturers. Supporting local has been our family philosophy for 55 years.

[LEFT] Donny Rouse — photo by Travis Gauthier [TOP] Alabama Grown Produce — photo by Frank Aymami

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