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People head to markets for last minute Thanksgiving shopping

S.Wright3 months ago
METAIRIE (WVUE) - Local grocery stores welcomed a steady stream of customers making their final purchases before Thanksgiving Day. Ideal Market in Metairie on Airline Highway ensured turkeys, pastries and other essentials were stocked for people like George Reyes.

Reyes is visiting from New Jersey and will cook for 38 loved ones this holiday. He was also randomly selected as the winner of a free Thanksgiving cake by store management.

“It’s my first time in this supermarket and look what I got here,” Reyes said. “It’s an honor. As a customer, it’s an honor to feel good this way.”

Ideal Market Marketing Director Ben Castro says giving away free cakes and holiday meals is an annual tradition for the Hispanic grocery store chain and one they look forward to every year.

“The supermarket business, we make good money. We have to give it back,” Castro said. “It’s not all about profits. It’s about serving the community and we do that here at Ideal.”

Castro says the store chain has seen many shoppers go home with traditional Thanksgiving foods, Louisiana-style dishes like fried turkey, and traditional Hispanic food like pigs feet and tamales.

Reyes says he’s glad he made the last-minute stop and is eager to start the cooking.

“I got a lot of seasoning to do. I got a lot of preparing. Everyone will be well,” he said.

Beyond traditional grocery stores, people also flocked to seafood markets like the Westwego Shrimp Lot for shrimp, crabs, oysters, fish or whatever else they needed for the holiday.

The lot was so packed that a Westwego police officer was assigned to the area to make sure traffic didn’t back up. Customers like Holly Fortin say shopping for Thanksgiving seafood is a tradition.

“Gumbo, bell peppers, cornbread dressing and all the fixings,” Fortin said. “I was born and raised with it. You have to have it. You have to.”

And no matter what shoppers ultimately bought, their goal was to make good food and lasting memories.

“Being with my family is more than enough,” shopper Miguel Lara said. “I’m a veteran from the Vietnam War, 75 years old. Being with them is amazing. I love my kids.”

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