A new grocery store is opening in downtown Lafayette.
Handy Stop Market and Café is coming to the corner of Congress and Jefferson streets. For downtown residents, this is a huge convenience.
Currently, people have to travel to pick up groceries. Amy Billeadeaux used to shop on the Walmart on Evangeline Throughway. Since its closure, she now commutes 20 minutes to Carencro.
Billeadeaux said, “I absolutely love this idea. My husband and I have been saying for years that we wish there something was here that we could just go and pick up things that we need.”
By fall, the old Festival International office on Jefferson Street will become a grocery store and market. The store is being opened by Bradley Cruice.
Cruice says he saw a need for a grocery store. “After volunteering and just talking to people, we recognized that was a need missing down here.”
The Handy Stop Market and Café will carry products from local farmers and vendors.
Cruice added, “We won’t be a supermarket. We won’t be everything for everybody, but we will have most of those healthier fresh items available.”
For shoppers who like to use their smartphone to order and pick up groceries, Cruice is also setting up an application. “I know bigger markets are doing it. Our goal is to have that app, so you can order and pick up,” said Cruice.
The market will have a drive-thru window for those orders.
Cruice grew up in the grocery store business. His father owned three stores in New Orleans.
