La Morenita Meat Market aiming for opening June 1
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Slidell will soon be home to a grocery store the likes of which the city has not seen.
La Morenita Meat Market, a growing independent chain of grocery stores, originated over 20 years ago in Mexico and has begun opening new stores throughout Texas and Louisiana.
Slidell is its newest target with local owner/manager Raul Avilez overseeing the renovation of a large space in the Northside Plaza Shopping Center near the corner of Gause Boulevard and Front Street, next to Planet Fitness. He said they are hoping to open by no later than June 1.
Mexican grocery stores have been expanding throughout the southern United States as more-and-more Hispanics make their way into this country, most of whom are interested in working to take advantage of the American opportunity.
Avilez said his family is no different and has a great appreciation for the chance to seek the American dream.
“The United States has always been the place looked at as the land of opportunity,” he said. “Our family started La Morenita Meat Markets in Mexico, and then after opening one in Texas, saw how popular they were. We have grown and grown, now with several in Louisiana. We believe Slidell is a perfect place for what we offer—something that is different than any other grocery store.”
La Morenita has a complete grocery store in most conventional ways, but specializes in a huge meat market, bakery and produce section. Avilez said they will offer things you will not find in any of the other bigger grocery stores in the region.
“Not only do we have a great selection of meats, with butchers ready to cut meat exactly the way you want, but we sell marinated meats you can’t find anywhere else,” he said. “They are the most delicious meats and are a specialty in our stores.”
For that matter, Avilez believes the key to success for the La Morenita grocery stores revolves around their attention to detail, particularly anything the customer wants.
With the produce in their store grown on their own farms in Mexico, and now the United States, Avilez recalls several situations where they listened to what their customers wanted, and began growing different crops.
“We used to have a squash that many of our customers enjoyed, but one day a customer came in and said they wanted it to be a smaller piece of produce,” he said. “So we told our growers to change some of the crops so that they produced a smaller squash that we now offer in the stores.
“Another time we had a customer ask to get greener bananas so they would take longer to ripen after being purchased,” he said. “We immediately told our growers to harvest some of them sooner so we could offer bananas in different stages of ripening.”
Avilez said those few examples were only two stories of how much they listen to their customers.
“We pride ourselves on having the most amazing produce and service,” he said. “We appreciate the opportunity to build our business in the United States and we want to make our customers very happy. I believe that is why we are having success in our stores.”
Avilez said that customers will also be finding “the biggest selection of Hispanic products anywhere,” however, he added that their customer base includes various cultures who have found their products to be superior to other stores.
“Of course, we have many Hispanics come to our stores, but we also carry different products for the Asian culture, and other cultures, as well,” he said. “We have many items that are not in other stores—it is perfect if you like cooking Hispanic dishes, in particular.”
Slidell will be the fifth La Morenita Meat Market in Louisiana where Avilez will soon be living with his wife Maria, married for 16 years, along with three of their four children. Their oldest son, 24-year-old Christian is currently the manager of their Lafayette store, while they still have 11-year-old Raul Jr., 10-year-old Heraclio, and 5-year-old Judith at home.
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