Winning In New Orleans & The Heroes
Anyone who knows me is well aware of my love for New Orleans. Twice a resident and always in my heart, the city is unrivaled in food, restaurants, music, art/art galleries, gorgeous parks, general natural beauty and kind people. It's also deeply troubled and flawed - decadence, poverty, systemic racism and an infrastructure so fragile that the inadequate levies finally gave way to the force of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
The storm made landfall 20 years ago this weekend. I can still bring back the fear, grief, horror, sadness and anger I felt watching this unfold on TV. I could not stop watching. I could not stop crying. And I could not reach my friends who I had left behind 3 months prior.
I started my grocery retail career in the New Orleans market and was transferred to New Jersey three months before the storm. I learned so much about how to respond to sales in a highly competitive market. In my first two years, Walmart opened nine (yes 9!) ground up Supercenter locations in 18 months. We had armed guards in half of our stores to ward off shoplifters who could not afford groceries and difficult in-store conditions given the severe weather half of the year. We built programs - loyalty, a wine club, new products, merchandising - all the things you do to compete. But we still lost. Yes, we were higher priced for sure. But we lost hearts and minds long before. We had no identity.
Hurricane Katrina made the Sav-A-Center banner popular again: we were one of the 1st full service grocery stores re-opened in the metro after the storm. That was really, really hard, not that I had anything to do with it. The acts of heroism and selflessness are real. My colleagues spent days gutting stores in dirty, sweaty clothes, severe heat, no power and putrid conditions with no safety gear or masks. They spent the evenings in makeshift camps together, taking shifts to stay awake through the still lawless evenings. They did not get permission. Or wait for compliance and risk officers to give the ok. They did not wait for trucks and supplies that never rolled. They just did it.
Sav-A-Center shifted. It grew. It was purchased by Rouses - a large and successful family owned regional chain in Louisiana still thriving today. Sav-A-Center did not grow because the banner was better. Or because they were "convenience priced" during these difficult months and years. They grew because a handful of still unnamed heroes took action.
Written by: Maria Gallegos
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