Makin’ Groceries is Easy in the Marigny
September 15, 2006
Whoever said you can’t be all things to all people has never met Benny Naghi, proprietor of the Mardi Gras Zone Supermarket at 2706 Royal St. in the Faubourg Marigny. For 5 years, Naghi’s business was exactly what the title suggests: a (mainly) Mardi Gras bead supplier and distributor.
A dearth of grocery stores in the neighborhood after Katrina forced Benny to rethink his purpose and his inventory, both as a business man and as a resident of the neighborhood. “I was tired of heading out to Metairie every time I needed an onion,” he says.
In March of 2006, Naghi began stocking groceries including dry goods, fresh produce, canned goods and cleaning supplies in a small corner of the warehouse space Mardi Gras Zone occupies on the corner of Port and Royal.
That small corner—about 300 square feet originally, has expanded to nearly 6000 square feet and now includes “just about anything you can imagine needing,” says manager Cameron MacLaren.
Pet food, hurricane preparedness items, hardware items, produce, and a sizeable international foods section including hispanic food; it’s all there. And the inventory continues to expand. Say MacLaren, “I’m afraid to take time off for fear something will change while I’m gone.”
Not only has the footprint of the store expanded; so too have hours of operation.
Mardi Gras Zone is now open 24/7, with about 10 employees staffing the business. How does he manage to keep it staffed in these times of dire labor shortages? “Most of us live pathetically close, so if someone doesn’t show up for a shift, one of us gets a knock on the door to ask if we can cover,” says MacLaren.
Naghi sees how New Orleans— particularly his neighborhood and the nearby French Quarter— is suffering with the lack of tourists. “But why do we have to be so dependent on tourism? When I started the grocery, it was because I was tired of not having the basics available in my neighborhood. One successful business can attract other businesses.”
“I would love to see a doctor, a dentist, a hairdresser, move onto my block,” says Naghi. “These are the services that people who live here need, and having such services in their neighborhood would make it easier for people to stay and help New Orleans rebuild.”