pseudo3d wrote:I looked at where and what these stores and I felt disappointed, frankly. Only one of them is Baton Rouge proper (that's the one that used to be Hi Nabor), and the rest are all in other parts like Plaquemine.
2 in Gonzales, 1 in Prairieville, 1 in Donaldsonville, 1 in Plaquemine, 1 in Zachary and the 1 in Baton Rouge are all in the BR Metro area. Only Plattenville and Hammond are outside that, and Plattenville could be argued either way.
pseudo3d wrote:LeBlanc's tends to have very small stores, and even the former Hi Nabor is about 30,000 square feet, and that's after an expansion.
Of the stores they bought:
Gonzales (Airline) is a 48,000sf former WD Marketplace.
Gonzales (Duplessis) was a brand new build that is a pretty good sized store (55,000sf); it was the first Frais Marche, a similar concept to Rouses.
Baton Rouge was a Hi Nabor store, and the one I mentioned was forced out of the lease. It is 30,000sf, but the expansion was done by Hi Nabor.
Zachary is also an older former WD that was about 40,000sf.
Plaquemine, Plattenville and Donaldsonville are similar, but none were a Marketplace, and are a little smaller, around 35,000sf.
Hammond is a former Delchamps, and it's around 45,000sf.
Prairieville is a 35,000sf store that has been expanded several times.
30,000sf is minimal, but compared to some of the local competitors, hardly small. Several are larger than that; most Rouses stores run 35-40,000 sf, other than a few purchased exceptions around New Orleans.
pseudo3d wrote:I've never been to a Rouses, but I've gotten the impression that they want to be sort of Louisiana's H-E-B, nice stores with lots of state pride, but unlike H-E-B, have always tended to skew small despite building modern, large-ish stores recently (well, Publix sized, so something closer to 50k square feet than 70k square feet).
I've been to many of their stores, including in their hometown of Thibodaux. The older stores vary, but have grown massively in consistency. They don't just try to be local, they *are* local. HEB trys to be all Texas, but in their further reaching stores (away from Houston or SA) tend to be lacking. Rouses is 100% consistent in quality and selection. Where else can you have owners welcoming folks to their grand openings? None of the Butt family travels to all their stores. The Rouse family (and especially Donny, the third generation partner) visits regularly, and pushes for perfection. Each store has its own personality, and they have outstanding prepared foods.
The main change I see for the LeBlanc stores would be in selection; they were big members of AGBR, but Rouses is adamantly not, having fought them in court to leave some time ago. I'm not surprised so much by the purchase; I know Rouse has been looking for a quick way in. I thought they'd go after a smaller bunch like Matherne's.