Lathan Alexander is a fourth generation grocer. Dating back to his childhood, Alexander’s days have started and ended at his family’s grocery business. The business, he says, was an “all consuming endeavor,” full of early mornings and late nights, seven days a week, he tells Business Report in its latest Entrepreneur feature.
Alexander’s family entered the grocery business in 1921, when his great-grandfather opened Alexander’s Grocery in St. Amant. His father took over the operations in 1977, renaming the store Murray’s Supermarket.
Alexander, after obtaining an LSU accounting degree, joined the family business with his two brothers, not only managing Murray’s but also growing a Gonzales-based automotive parts business his father purchased in 1986 into six locations across south Louisiana.
Alexander set his sights on opening a second grocery store in 2010. The south Baton Rouge Highland Road corridor, near the Interstate 10 intersection, was a natural fit.
“For the past 30 years, my wife and I have lived in this community, raising our kids here, and we always had the sense that it was underserved,” he says. “This is a perfect opportunity for us to create a place where people can feel like they have that vintage neighborhood market, and it’s also a way to recapture a sense of what I had growing up.”
They broke ground on Alexander’s Highland Market in 2011, opening in April 2013 with an emphasis on local products.
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