Houma-based Grainger store finds its niche in Tri-parish market

Rebecca Anna Lee Dorsey Williams
August 18, 2009
Jeanette A Bourgeois
August 20, 2009
Rebecca Anna Lee Dorsey Williams
August 18, 2009
Jeanette A Bourgeois
August 20, 2009

One year after opening its doors, W.W. Grainger Inc. in Houma is still making strides to offer local businesses the supplies they need to keep their facilities operating.

Grainger is one of the world’s leading industrial supply distributors.


The 80-year-old company has 500-plus stores throughout the United States. It has been a presence in Louisiana for more the 70 years, currently with seven locations.


The Houma location was one of four in the state that Grainger planned to open in 2008-09.

Houma branch manager Donald Alphonso said management hopes to expand its market share. New locations are set for Gonzales, New Iberia and the southern part of Baton Rouge.


Houma’s Grainger store will soon celebrate its one-year anniversary. Alphonso said over the past year local customers have been really receptive to the company.


For years, Houma-Thibodaux businesses shipped in products from Grainger’s Harahan location. Locals wanted the convenience of a store in their own backyard.

“It’s obviously going to save them time and money, keeping them on the job longer,” said Shaun Holladay, a Grainger district branch service manager. “It helps to go to one place to get their supplies instead of driving to multiple locations.”


Grainger officials put a plan together and opened an 18,000- square-foot building on La. Highway 311 next to L.E. Fletcher’s Allied Health Facility in December 2008.


With a 2,500-square-foot showroom displaying 19,000 different Grainger items, the establishment offers customers everything from electrical and plumbing supplies to building safety items and vehicle fleet maintenance.

“The main focus of the Houma store was not about sales, but about getting more products closer to the Houma-Thibodaux customers,” Alphonso said.


To help keep the store’s inventory moving, Grainger has implemented some cost-saving measures.


Alphonso said Grainger has beefed up its products inventory to offer customers more stock.

“One way we figured would help reduce the cost for our customers is alleviating them from having to purchase so much inventory to stock in their business,” he said. “We say let us stock it for you. We call it ‘Just In Time’ inventory. They come to us when they need it.”


Over the past year, the system has worked fine for Grainger and its Houma-Thibodaux customers, Alphonso added.

The Houma store is one of five Grainger prototypes built in the Leadership and Energy Environmental Design. The building is equipped with motion sensory capabilities to help save money on water and electricity and reduce waste.

In addition, Grainger has partnered with technical and community colleges to offer scholarships to local students to help address the nation’s shortage of skilled workers.

“The trade industry is a dying

industry. We feel it’s important to keep it alive,” Alphonso said.

“Grainger decided to partner with local trade schools to try and help students develop their future and the future of the trade industry,” he said. “We want to play a critical role in reducing the growing skills gaps that are occurring in the country. We’re just trying to support the technical education system.”

The program, called Tools for Tomorrow, was started in 2006. Grainger has invested in the future of 51 students across the country, 35 in 2008, according to Alphonso.

The company also awarded more than $48,000 in scholarship money and tool kit supplies last year.

Alphonso said helping students who are entering professions where they may become future Grainger customers is part of the drive behind partnering with technical colleges.

“We’re helping them today, so that in the future we will also be providing for them once they are out in the industry,” he said. “We’ll be able to supply them with the tools and supplies they need to move forward. “

“Together we can help ensure that the Houma community continues to have an ample pool to meet the demand for workers in the skilled and technical trades.”

Brian Knight, a Fletcher Technical Community College machine tool technology major, received a $2,000 Grainger Tools for Tomorrow scholarship on Nov. 4, 2008.

Knight will also receive $1,000 in Westward tools upon successful completion of the program, Alphonso said.

“I am grateful for Grainger’s generous contribution that has helped to further my career in machining,” said Knight, a Thibodaux native. “This scholarship provides an opportunity for me to focus on my professional goals as a leader in the machining field and in my local community.”

Shane Mims, Grainger sales team leader, stocks inventory in the hurricane preparedness section of the Houma store. Donald Alphonso says hurricane preparedness supplies are one of the store’s best sellers. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF