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23
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.Wehad 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.Wehave 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