Haydei’s leaves dowtown

Good Time Charlie & co.
January 29, 2015
Police: Girl, 2, killed by truck in Thibodaux
January 30, 2015
Good Time Charlie & co.
January 29, 2015
Police: Girl, 2, killed by truck in Thibodaux
January 30, 2015

After nearly a century as a fixture of Downtown Houma, Haydei’s Drug Store no longer graces its presence with the emotional connection, and of course the supplies, Downtown Houma has come to know for 87 years.

Even though we’re decades removed from the drug store’s soda fountain serving as a social hot spot for dating and a bicyclist delivery service serving he city when it was mostly centered around Downtown, the decision to leave Downtown in lieu of Haydei’s other two locations was a tough one according to owner, president and pharmacist Robert Rock.


“[The emotional connection people have with the store] made it a tough decision. We didn’t arrive at it overnight,” said Rock, who used to be married to the granddaughter of the store’s founder. “There’s a lot of history. There’s a lot of family history and a sense of responsibility that comes with it, with that name not only being a pharmacy but just carrying on the family name and tradition of providing quality service to people and knowing what’s associated with it – that you can get taken care of and treated right.”

Rock, currently operates Haydei’s Drug Store along with his son, Bobby Rock, the fourth-generation of the Haydel bloodline to operate the store.

“You hear a lot of old stories about how so and so used to walk with their girlfriend after church, and dad would give them a quarter or a nickel, and they would treat themselves to ice cream or a soda, and you hear that so many times. It’s pretty neat. It was the place to go,” said Bobby Rock.


Robert Rock said many men told him they met their wives at Haydei’s.

“There actually was an awning that went around the building back in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, and when the soda fountain was operating, they had girls on skates, kind of like they do at Sonic now,” explained the elder Rock.

“People would just pull up, place their order, get their order, sit there and consume what they bought. That’s back when the entertainment was people walking along Main Street looking at the store fronts. No one had television. No one had computers. It was a simpler time, and you had to make your entertainment, so to speak.”


Now, entertainment comes so easy, but before the days of Southland Mall and the expansion of Martin Luther King Boulevard, Haydei’s served the meet-up spot in Downtown Houma.

“Where you want to meet? Well, Haydei’s. We know where that’s at,” Robert Rock said of the olden times. “It was used as a landmark for people to navigate around.”

But with those days long gone by, Haydei’s expanded to the East Side in 2004, opening up a location on Grand Caillou Road and Houma’s West Side expansion on La. Hwy. 311 in 2007. After seeing great success at both locations featuring a drive through at both – something that would be impossible at the Downtown location – Robert Rock considered that and other changes with the times as a reason to leave Houma’s Historic District behind.


“Just the reality of the situation,” Robert Rock said when asked what went into the decision to leave Downtown Houma, “the clientele, the demographics mix, reimbursements from insurance companies. It forces everybody to become lean and mean and to utilize what they have and what they can offer to people to the best of their ability. Downtown, it was kind of tough for people to park. It was kind of tough for people to get to us. It was tough for us to get to them to deliver with the traffic becoming more and more, and it makes sense to come to an area where we can move better and better serve the customers.”

Haydei’s last day of operations at its Downtown Houma location was Dec. 12. Now, with headquarters operating out of the La. Hwy. 311 store, Robert Rock said the store has picked up many new customers, and its two locations still serve and deliver to the customers who utilized the Downtown location also.

“We’re hoping that with the growth that’s taking place out here as well as throughout the parish, we’ll be able to service the needs of the ones we have as well as anyone else that comes on board,” said the elder Rock. “We’ve had a great response of people understanding and following, and we want to thank them.”


Above all, Haydei’s remains locally owned, something the elder Rock wants the public to remember when they’re filling out their prescriptions and trying to decide where to go – especially, he said, any potential Terrebonne Parish School District employees recently dropped by Walgreens.

“That’s a golden opportunity for us as independents, because No. 1 we’ve always been here. The boxes just come into town to take the money. The money leaves each night. We pay the taxes. We furnish the salaries and all the benefits of the school teachers, so why not patronize the hand that feeds you? When there was the election for the school board taxes, Walgreens wasn’t down here voting. We were. We’re the ones that put time and effort into the community,” said Robert Rock.

Providing both prescription and over-the-counter medicine, breathing machines, flu shots both at the store and on location and of course, its long-standing delivery service, visit Haydei’s at 4752 La. Highway 311 on the West Side or 831 Grand Caillou Road on the east. E3


Back in the days of old-time cars, Haydei’s Drug Store was the place to be and meet up for those growing up in Houma.

COURTESY | HAVDEL’S