Founded four years before New Orleans, the city of Natchitoches is the oldest in Louisiana. It’s known for the Christmas Lights Festival, meat pies and a convenience store off Interstate 49 that draws thousands of travelers each month. The store, the French Market Express, is all about Louisiana food and culture.

Linda Henderson and her husband, Earl, opened the store in February 1996. “My thought was to create a store that would be a departure from the usual c-store,” she said. As she began sketching out her ideas, “I had this picture of a customer in mind, kind of a Marlboro Man,” she recalled. “Would this offend him? I wanted to appeal to women [but also] not offend men.”

Today, more than 2,000 people walk through the doors of French Market Express each day. “I’m most proud that last month we averaged close to $10 per transaction,” Henderson said.

Baking in the Right Mix

The c-store wasn’t busy at first, despite its location. Like most ventures, it took some trial and error to land on the right mix of offers to draw in customers and keep them coming back.

Initially, Henderson tried stocking groceries and then added more groceries when traffic didn’t pick up. At one point, she considered selling the store, but instead made a few changes. One of those changes put the French Market Express on the map.

“Before I opened the store, my dad told me about a recipe,” said Henderson, who hails from a long line of cooks. “My aunt baked a yam cake back in the 1930s, and it won a prize.” So, Henderson began to experiment at home. The family recipe had to be modified a bit, but when it was right, customers couldn’t get enough—and the c-store café and bakery took off.

“Today, we sell so many yam cakes. It’s our signature item,” she said.

Even though we've been successful, I don't want customers to leave me for a better bathroom.

Louisiana-Style Cooking

The French Market Express stocks local souvenirs that appeal to tourists, but food is a big draw at the French Market Express. “We do more volume than a lot of restaurants,” Henderson said. Meat pies are popular—it’s a Natchitoches thing. “It’s not unusual to sell about 900 a day.” And you can’t have “French” in the name without New Orleans fare. The po’ boy sandwiches rival ones found in the city’s historic French Quarter. The café takes pride in its gumbo, and customers can pick up a bottle of wine to go with their Cajun food.

Gingerbread cookies are big sellers. Although the c-store now bakes most of its cookies, Henderson initially sourced the gingerbread men from an outside supplier. When that bakery stopped making them, the market stopped selling them. That seemed reasonable to everyone—except Henderson’s customers.

“Customers kept asking for them. Too many people loved them,” she said, adding that, “We’re in tune to what customers want from us.” Henderson got to work perfecting the recipe. It took three months to match the flavor and “in December, we sold over 2,200 gingerbread men.”

In February, during king cake season, the most popular filling for the Mardi Gras staple is pecan praline with cream cheese.

Being active on social media helps get the word out about their good food to travelers. “People go to Yelp and Trip Advisor to see where they want to eat,” Henderson said. She watches her online presence and points out that the store’s average review on Trip Advisor is 4.5, and Facebook is 4.7.

New Look, More Space

After many years in the business, Henderson has a knack for observing and adapting. “In the last few months, we spent over a million dollars renovating. We added a building for extra stock, so we can constantly restock the store. We built an additional kitchen for the bakery,” she explained.

Bathrooms were also remodeled, since Henderson knows that restrooms can make a c-store a destination, especially on an interstate. The ladies’ room is doorless, with a changing area and a toddler seat. “I put in a counter for makeup and a full-length mirror,” she said, adding that “the men’s room is a walk-in, and they’ve been very complimentary about it.”

There’s competition all along the interstate, and she keeps an eye on it. “Even though we’ve been successful, I want to be just as shiny and bright and new, so customers don’t leave me for a better bathroom.”

Henderson’s goal has always been to be a different kind of c-store with a comfortable look and feel so families know it’s a good place to stop. And while a lot has changed in the past 23 years, French Market Express remains a family business. Son, Troy, has been managing the c-store for 12 years. Henderson’s husband sold his pharmacy and now works in the store, too. “Our business has increased so much that we’ve gone from 22 to 32 employees, and we turn our inventory over 31 to 32 times a year,” she said.

Her advice to c-store entrepreneurs? “You have to have a passion for it,” she said. “If you just want to make money, this isn’t the business for you.”