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There are dozens of grocery store options available to people in the south, but two grocery companies have a stake hold in feeding the people who work out in the oil field.
Rouses Market and Frank’s Supermarket both have locations scattered through bayou country, but some of their biggest customers are the people on work boats. These stores take large and small grocery orders in order to keep these workers well fed on the job.
“There’s a lot of business out there,” said Donny Rouse, owner of Rouses Markets. “The marine industry is very important to our state. We do business with most of them on personal levels for their homes, so it’s great to do it for their businesses as well.”
Grocery orders are placed by phone, fax or email, or through either grocer’s website. Once an order is placed, a local store packages the food in boxes with dry or wet ice to keep it preserved. Then someone picks up the order at their local market or the order is placed on a truck and shipped to a dock.
“We go from all the way in west Louisiana through Gulf Shores,” said Rouse. “We have stores all the way along I-10, so we don’t have to go very far. We cover the whole Gulf Coast.”
Rouse said their market has provided this service for many years. Frank’s Supermarket owner David LeBoeuf said his company has been offering these same specialized services to the offshore oil industry for about 30 years.
“It’s a big part of my business,” LeBoeuf said. “We make most of our deliveries to Port Fourchon. Most of our business is we supply the vessels that service the rigs.”
“The orders vary from $500 to $10,000, depending on the size of the vessel,” said LeBouef. “The size of the vessel determines the number of people that are operating the vessel.”
According to LeBoeuf, the average grocery order to Frank’s Supermarket for a ship or rig costs $1,500. This order likely feeds six to eight people over an extended period of time.
Frank’s Supermarket has locations in Larose, Lockport, Des Allemands and Golden Meadow. According to the Frank’s website, the grocery chain is known in Lafourche and St. Charles parishes for its customer service, quality products and competitive prices.
Rouse prides himself on having over 50 stores in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that offer everyday low prices to all its customers.
“We offer our marine customers the same price a regular customer gets,” said Rouse. “When they walk in the door, they get the shelf price. We don’t mark it up like our competitors do. They get our great quality and our everyday low prices just like any other customer.”
Rouse said food orders can range from ordinary items such as milk, eggs and bread to more luxury foods such as steak and lobster depending on who is ordering. Both Rouse’s and Frank’s markets have earned positive reputations, partly due to their business with the offshore oil industry.
“We have our reputation that speaks for itself among the industry,” said LeBoeuf. “I think our service that we provide to these vessels is very important to them because they’re on timelines, and when that boat comes in to dock, they expect to get their groceries in a timely manner. We provide that for them.”
At Frank’s in Golden Meadow, cashier Dana Friloux checks out a large boat order on Friday morning. Once bagged, they are loaded into the company’s van for delivery.
