Did you know Sav-a-Center is pulling out of the New Orleans market? Once they leave there will be no full service super market in Orleans Parish on the park side of Mid City, unless someone comes in and takes over. According to City Business, the super market change is looking to sell their 21 stores in the New Orleans area as a group. Unfortunately this is going to make is hard for any of the locally owned stores (Dorignac's, Breaux Mart, Zuppardo's, Rouse's) to swoop in on the Sav-a-Center turf. All of these stores are to small to be able to afford to buy all 21 sites, but a number of them are interested in purchasing a few of the stores.

It would be nice it the locals could parse the group into prime locations, but I understand Sav-a-Center's need to sell in bulk in order to completely leave. Plus if only a few stores were taken then some may be left to close up and abandon their neighborhoods. Mid-City and New Orleans East and the edge of Gentilly could see the end of nearby grocery stores. Just look and the current locations on Carrollton (the Mid-City location near me) and Franklin Blvd (the only supermarket for all of the colleges on the lake, like UNO and SUNO). Both of these stores already have experiences that are much worse than the Veterans store in Metairie. Both have poor product choice and hours (though the Carrollton one has a better self serve policy than the Metairie one). At least the one on Carrollton seems to have higher prices than the Metairie one. I can only wonder what will happen after the sale. Will the stores close up further? Will prices get worse? Or, will that famous UK market, Tesco, decide to move into New Orleans in addition to their new Stateside stores in L.A.?