BATON ROUGE, LA – Despite nearly three decades of advancements in refrigeration, distribution, livestock genetics, and modern grocery operations, local Baton Rouge father Raymond Landry remains absolutely convinced that no grocery store in Louisiana has ever matched the meat department at Delchamps.
Family members say Landry brings up the subject whenever anyone mentions steaks, hamburgers, grocery shopping, inflation, or Louisiana in general.
“It wasn’t even close,” Landry explained while at a family barbecue. “Y’all can keep your fancy stores. Delchamps had butchers. Real butchers. Those men could look at a cow and tell you what it was going to taste like.”
According to relatives, every family cookout eventually turns into a 20-minute presentation about the superiority of Delchamps ground meat, the thickness of their pork chops, and the unmatched expertise of employees working behind the meat counter sometime around 1989.
Landry has reportedly vowed to continue educating younger generations about Delchamps until they fully appreciate what Louisiana lost when the grocery chain closed, or until someone finally invents a steak capable of meeting his standards.
