Dana Majoria reflected on the grocery store he grew up in, his family’s business, that opened its doors 60 years ago.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 – I’m the Johnny come lately of the group,” he said with a laugh.
Majoria’s Supermarket officially saw its 60-year anniversary this year. The grocery has been a fixture in the community – and the Majoria family along with it.
Murphy Majoria opened the store in 1964 and established it as a success before ultimately passing the business to the next generation, with his sons Marc, Shea, Barry and Dana driven to carry his legacy onward.
Dana, the youngest of the brothers, said that for any business to find success over such a long period of time, it indeed takes plenty of hard work – but that it also takes some fortune, one way or another.
“My dad used to say, ‘you don’t have to have good luck, you just need the absence of bad luck,’” Dana said. “You need to be lucky enough to avoid misfortune. You go through peaks and valleys and when times are tough, you handle it. We take nothing for granted.”
He said his father taught he and his siblings the value of honesty, generosity and hard work.
“’You wanna eat? You’ve gotta work,’ he’d tell us. You need to be honest with people. Some people will take a short-term gain at the expense of their long-term reputation. Never take your customers for granted. You’ve always got to think there’s another store, another guy out there ready to beat your brains out,” Dana said.
Shea Majoria said committing to those values was absolutely critical for a small, family-owned business compared to the explosion at the time of larger, corporate-owned competitors.
“The independent grocery has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 20 years,” Shea said. “But back then, we were a dinosaur among all these big conglomerates going on. I think we kind of found our niche that we needed to have. That personal touch, camaraderie with customers over the years – you build relationships. Not just customer relationships, but relationships.
“When it came down to it, you make the decisions whether they’re right or wrong. There is no corporate saying you’ve gotta do this or that. We made the decisions and whether it works out or not, you have to eat it.”
The personal touch, as he noted, is something local residents have grown accustomed to when they walk into the store.
“I might be 20, 30 minutes talking to a customer. Maybe I don’t know when to shut up,” Shea quipped. “But people want to be able to go and talk to the owner about what they want and talk about not just the grocery business, but fishing, hunting … I think it’s worked out fine for us,”
Shea said.
Murphy Majoria was born in 1922 and grew up in St. Charles Parish, a graduate of Hahnville High School. He left the area, ultimately getting into the grocery business in Kenner and later Bridge City.
But when the opportunity arose, Murphy, along with his wife Leona, returned to open Majoria’s Supermarket in Boutte. The couple had four young children at the time – and ultimately would have six. It was a true homecoming for Murphy, and over time, the business blossomed in a big way. Majoria’s Supermarket was the first grocery located on Highway 90.
“He knew everybody,” Dana said. “He left here poor, and came back a successful businessman.”
When Murphy was ready to step away, his sons were ready to step up. They grew up as children together in the store, where they also grew together as businessmen.
Barry said he had no plans to go into the grocery business as a young man. But when his father suffered a heart attack in 1974, Barry joined the business.
“It’s been a lifetime for us,” Barry said, noting pride in the fact Majoria’s is one of the oldest surviving businesses in St. Charles Parish. “It was always my father’s dream to have the family together and working closely with one another. We each came in one by one.”
Barry said working with his brothers is an experience he feels very fortunate to have enjoyed – but admitted, of course, there are ups and downs with that.
“It’s very rewarding, and challenging because you have such different personalities. But I wouldn’t ever trade it for the world,” Barry said. “When we’re gone, it’s going to be the end of an era.”
Dana concurred.
“You know, it’s a double-edged sword,” Dana said. “The good thing is you’re around each other all the time. The bad thing is – you’re around each other all the time. But it keeps you close. All of my siblings, we all live right here, five minutes away from one another. A lot of people don’t have that. We’re very fortunate.”
It means the family enjoys the good times and endures the tough times together, in business but also beyond it. The Majorias have suffered losses recently, including the passing of two of the five brothers – Marc in October of this year, Murphy III in 2022 – and mother Leona in 2019.
“People take things for granted … I’ve lost two brothers, my mother in the past few years. It changes the family,” Dana said.
But the tight-knit family forges ahead.
The store’s longevity is a point of pride for the brothers, and that it’s happened in their home community
only makes it mean that much more.
“It is pretty cool. Imagine being a young kid in the 70s and 80s and your mama is pushing you through a grocery store in a buggy, then today you’re pushing a buggy with your own grandkids or great-grandkids in that same store,” Dana said.
Great employees have also made things a success.
“We’ve been blessed with some really good people who have made a difference,” Dana said. “We have two employees who have been with us for 35 or more years … it’s been a great 60 years with so much good fortune along the way.”
Each of the brothers expressed a tremendous amount of gratitude for a supportive community that’s made 60 years of success possible.
“It’s been very, very rewarding being a part of this community for that long,” Barry said.
