Rouses to buy 10 Winn-Dixie locations in Louisiana, Mississippi, including in New Orleans East
CEO Donny Rouse, Jr., said the purchase includes a store on Chef Menteur Highway that ‘will be great for the community.’
- By STEPHANIE RIEGEL | Staff writerStephanie Riegel
- Nov 17, 2025
Rouses Markets is purchasing 10 Winn-Dixie locations in Louisiana and Mississippi from the Florida-based chain’s parent company, continuing its yearslong regional expansion and adding to its share of the local grocery market.
Terms of the deal, which is being announced on Monday, were not disclosed. But Rouses CEO Donny Rouse, Jr. said the stores — including a location on Chef Menteur Highway in New Orleans East that is one of the few grocery stores in the underserved area — will be converted to Rouses Markets early next year. All Winn-Dixie employees that meet Rouses’ hiring criteria will be offered jobs.
“It’s a big opportunity for us and will be great for the community,” Rouse said Monday by phone.
In addition to the store on Chef Menteur Highway, locations that are part of the deal include two Jefferson Parish stores (one in Kenner and one in Marrero), three on the north shore, and one each in Destrehan, Gramercy, Central and Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
“Some locations will be new markets for us,” said Rouse, the third-generation CEO of the company founded by his grandfather in 1960. “Others are existing markets where we already do well and wanted to expand.”
The deal comes two months after Robert Fresh Market, another local chain, acquired the century-old Langenstein’s and converted its locations to Roberts, underscoring the further consolidation in the local grocery market.
For its part, Rouses has grown in recent years into a regional grocery giant. In 2010, the Shriever-based company had 37 stores. When the Winn-Dixie purchase is finalized early next year, Rouses will have 76 locations in the Gulf South between Lake Charles and Orange Beach, Alabama and 8,000 employees.
The company is now has the second-largest share of the grocery market in New Orleans area behind Wal Mart, with about one in three New Orleanians buying groceries from Rouses.
Serving a food desert
Rouses is purchasing the Winn-Dixie stores from Southeastern Grocers, which also owns Harveys Supermarket. Southeastern has been downsizing and refocusing in recent years amid changing market conditions and increased competition.
In early 2024, it sold 400 stores across the region to ALDI, the discount chain known for its popular house brands. It then bought back 170 of the locations through a new partnership less than a year later.
Last month, it announced it would be pulling out of its non-Florida locations and rebranding as The Winn-Dixie Company. Among the local locations that will be shutting down is the longtime Winn-Dixie on Tchoupitoulas Street Uptown.
Winn-Dixie did not announce plans for two of its busiest locations in the local market — on North Carrollton Avenue in Mid-City and Veterans Boulevard in Metairie. Rouse said they were not offered for sale. The 10 locations his company is buying were on offer, and those were the ones that made strategic sense.
That’s particularly true of the store in New Orleans East, parts of which qualify as a “food desert,” an area with limited access to fresh food. The Chef Menteur Highway store with will be Rouses’ first in that part of the market.
“We want to be successful in that area and know what it will do for economic development,” Rouse said, adding that the company is encouraged by commitments from Mayor-Elect Helena Morena to focus on economic development in New Orleans.
“We had conversations with her about her goals and plans for New Orleans East and making sure we had support from her and the city to operate there,” he said.
Renovations to come
Rouses will begin converting and rebranding its new stores in January, taking them over one at a time and spending two weeks on the transition at each location. During that period, each store will be closed for six or seven days while it is repainted and freshened up with new lighting and décor.
The company plans major remodels at the Central and Hattiesburg locations and will begin working on those plans after the transition.
The projects will include upgrades to store layouts, equipment and design. Over the next few years, all 10 stores will be remodeled.
“Our goal is to make this transition as smooth as possible,” Rouse said.
The 10 Winn-Dixie locations being purchased by Rouses are:
· 9701 Chef Menteur Hwy., New Orleans, LA 70127
· 4627 Westbank Expressway, Marrero, LA 70072
· 12519 Airline Highway, Suite A, Destrehan, LA 70047
· 2104 Williams Blvd., Kenner, LA 70062
· 70431 Highway 21, Covington, LA 70433
· 4100 Highway 59, Mandeville, LA 70471
· 731 Washington St., Franklinton, LA 70438
· 1803 LA Highway 3125, Gramercy, LA 70052
· 10974 Joor Rd., Baton Rouge, LA 70818
· 4400 Hardy St., Hattiesburg, MS 39402
Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate.com.
