At South End Country Mart in Lafayette, Louisiana, the store’s mission is to offer products at reasonable prices. 

“My dad told me, ‘Tye, we have to take care of the people.’ He always talks about the people who only have 20 or 30 dollars—they need a good value,” the owner, Tye Jon Hebert, explained. “Even rich people are poor in this economy. You have to give a good value for what you’re selling.”

Hebert’s parents, Keno and Linda Hebert, bought the store in October of 2008. “My father grew up across the street from the store. Our family still lives in the same neighborhood,” Hebert said. When the couple purchased the property, the store was in rough shape—it was unattractive and not user-friendly.

“Through turbulent times and uncertainty, my parents never lost sight of their vision. They dug in, cleaned up and turned it around,” Hebert said. “They took it from being a little store to a profitable business. A lot of that is due to gas station goodies, but food is how we make the real money. It accounts for 70% of the revenue.”

“The original owner had the pumps removed. Welcome to a gas station with no gas. We have gas station goodies, but no gas,” said Hebert.  

A Food Destination

The c-store is a food destination in this part of town. Hebert accounts that success to the recipes, which come from his mom. “She is a phenomenal cook. Her mother was a great cook. Mom came from a family with eight kids, so they had to cook big meals.”

Another secret to success? How you cook the food. “A friend of mine gave me her secret to phenomenal meals. She told me, ‘You never cook higher than medium, always use twice as many onions as the recipe calls for and it must take two hours.’ I’ve cooked thousands of meals using those three tips. It always works,” he said. 

Hebert said the most popular item on the menu by far is the pork roast—but meatball stew is a contender for the second spot. “We normally have two different plate lunches, but when we serve meatball stew, we get so many orders we only cook that.”

In addition to plate lunches, the store offers catering, which has recently become profitable. “We do onsite and offsite catering,” Hebert noted, saying, “I’m heading to College Station, Texas, to cook jambalaya for 2,000 people. That’s a lot of sausage to cut.”

Keeping Prices Down

Plate lunches are a southern staple. It can be hard to find a plate lunch that costs less than $10. At South End Country Mart, a plate lunch is only $7.50. 

The key to the low price? A smaller plate. “No one wants a giant plate lunch. We have no leftovers. No waste, it’s eco-friendly. It’s perfect for one person,” Hebert said. “We could raise the prices on the plate lunch to $9 or $10, but we don’t want to be greedy. If you buy a drink with the plate lunch, it might be $10, which we think is a good value.”

Another way Hebert has kept prices down is by going local: when the price of eggs increased, he was able to source them locally and offer customers eggs for $5 instead of $8.

“We’re convenient for the one-meal stop. We’re kind of like a Cajun Cracker Barrel,” he said, adding, “A small, locally-owned store can do things a corporate store can’t do. A single lady wanted rice. A five-pound bag is too much. So, I go in the back and scoop a pint of uncooked rice. Just enough for one meal. When people say they only need a small amount of a product, I’m not going to let them leave without selling them what they need.”

“Good vibes drive great business. When customers walk in, I want them to hear us laughing. I tell my employees I should hear you smiling because our impact I more than the food we serve,” said Hebert.

“It’s emotional. Everything you buy is emotional, including food. People won’t return if the price is too high,” Hebert said.