People are what make any place special, and give it its strength, in good times and bad. Here, in the New Orleans area, times are tough, to be generous. But so, too, are many of the people. Residents, under the most severe of circumstances, are working to rebuild and get back into their homes. Similarly, business owners, small and large, continue to forge ahead.
I’ve tried to make a point recently to meet and hear the stories from some of those who are working to get a business back on its feet. Their stories are equally compelling and, in some cases, even more challenging.
A year ago, Dave Magri wasn’t nearly as comfortable when he went to work as he is today. His Smoothie King store on Paris Road in shambles courtesy of Hurricane Katrina, Magri and longtime employee Tracy Chadwick decided to run the store out of a trailer less than a mile down the road. Do that, he says, or he wouldn’t stand a chance of ever re-opening his store in St. Bernard Parish.
“I had to keep the store going,” says Magri, who has owned a pair of Smoothie Kings here in the New Orleans area for years. “It was primitive. We had to wash up with a hose at the food store next door, we washed all the blenders there.”
Cramped quarters, a hot trailer and long hours, all in the midst of a Parish that suffered as much water and mud damage as any in the region, were just accepted circumstances, a price to pay if he ever wanted his store back. He had to keep business going and cash flow alive, otherwise he’d have no chance of re-opening the original store.
Magri and I recently sat in his office, looking at the photos from 2005 and 2006, when his store was in ruins, the shopping plaza deserted and the streets and parking lots lined with mud. He talked about the long days in the trailer, which he opened in November of 2005, just a couple of months after Katrina. Six days a week they served smoothies, hot dogs and red beans and rice to the people who were back starting the clean-up, using Sunday to cook and prepare food, as well as rest. As one of the few businesses open, Magri’s trailer version of a Smoothie King did pretty well, taking in he estimates about 60-70% of the revenue his store generated.
He never admitted as much, but I’d venture to say that Magri was helping the community as much as he was his own business. And he had great support. Tracy and her sister, Robyn Saucier, had moved up to Poplarville, MS, into a home of a family friend (Robyn is in the middle, Tracy on the right in picture on top right). Together they drove 70 miles each way every day of the week to come to work, Tracy at the trailer with Magri in St. Bernard Parish and Robyn at his other store over in Gentilly. Tracy recalled how the tips she made from her day’s work barely covered the gas expenses.
It’s amazing what people did to get by, to survive, to rebuild, not just structures but their lives.
Today, both of his stores are open (this particular one on Paris Road in St. Bernard Parish re-opened in September of 2006). Challenges still lie ahead. Magri points out that he's more in debt now than when he opened his first store 16 years ago, thanks to a loan he had to take out through the Smart Business Association. And costs keep rising. Still, while I heard the concern in his voice, he gave no indications he'd be walking away anytime soon, not after all the work this team here put in to get back.
Two, three times a week I walk into what is now a clean and colorful environment, air conditioning booming, helping to take the soppiness out of my skin and clothes that the humidity outside impales on me, even if just for a few brief moments. It certainly wasn’t always like this, not last year. Dave, Tracy and Robyn know that all too well.
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