THE FAMILY GROCERY STORE

BY KEITH TWITCHELL

Neighborhood grocery stores, once ubiquitous throughout New Orleans, are becoming an endangered species.

Not to be confused with convenience marts, these increasingly rare treasures serve their neighbors with real, fresh foods — and a significant dollop of community. There’s no better example of the traditional neighborhood grocery than Terranova’s, located at 3308 Esplanade Avenue in the Bayou St. John area. Founded in 1925 by Benjamin and Lena Terranova, it is currently owned by the third generation of the Terranova family, with the fourth generation involved in every aspect of operations and preparing to assume the mantle when the time comes.

The building was originally a single-story house, until Benjamin elevated the first floor living area and built the store underneath. Initially offering primarily meat products and a few dried goods, over the years it evolved into a full grocery.

However, meats are still the main attraction. Terranova’s prepares its own sausages, hogshead cheese (a neighborhood favorite), meatballs, pork chops and more.

Terranovas Supermarket

3308 Esplanade Ave., New Orleans 504-482-4131

“People come here for the meats,” said co-owner Karen Terranova, “and we hope they buy more items.”

The four-person staff are all family members, which eliminates many issues but places a lot of responsibility on the foursome.

“We order, stock, sell, do the books, everything from toilets to taxes,” said Terranova. “This business is not for people who want to get rich, it’s for people who love what they do.”

One byproduct of this is vacations are few and far between. The store only closes for one week each year, the second week of Jazz Fest, which Terranova said is a very slow time for them. However, the equipment still needs to be checked on regularly, so the two generations alternate taking vacations from year to year.

The biggest challenge, though, and the reason so many other small groceries are falling by the wayside, is stocking the shelves.

“Unless you can order big quantities, the suppliers don’t want to come to you,” Terranova explained. “We often have to go to the warehouses ourselves to pick things up.”

Compounding this is that the larger stores, ordering in larger quantities, can often charge lower prices. Terranova’s works to be as competitive as possible with its pricing, and to keep the variety of items in store as broad as possible.

What Terranova’s can offer that the big chains cannot is personal service and even a sense of community. When big storms hit, Terranova’s stays open long after other groceries have shuttered; and now, with its own generator power, opens back up as soon as it can. Indeed, when it reopened after Hurricane Katrina, it generated a neighborhood celebration.

“People need their supplies, and sometimes they just need a cold glass of water and a place to get out of the heat,” Terranova observed.

This is just one of many ways Terranova’s is a neighborhood resource, and the focus on customer service is definitely rewarded by customer loyalty.

“We have generations of the same families that have shopped here,” said Terranova. “It’s more than a store, and the people who come here are more like family than customers.” T