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and to thrive in their careers — not just jobs, but careers .” After being hired, each new team member is paired with a current team member for several days to learn the ins and outs of Rouses, go through team orientations, and learn the day-to-day job requirements. “We also created a program called Rouses University for our team members,” he explained. “For instance, if you’re working in the bakery department, we have online courses to help you understand that job better, and there are different levels of courses. As your career at Rouses advances, you have the opportunity to learn more things about the bakery (or whatever department you’re in or want to be in), and study up so that you’re more knowledgeable. That way, when the time comes for you to get that promotion — to become assistant department manager, say, or even department manager, or move into different departments or any level of management you aspire to — we help make sure you’re ready and equipped for success.” It’s not just the employees casting Best Of “Local companies provide things that national companies can never offer. The families who run companies like Community Coffee or Camellia Beans or what have you — these are fourth- and fifth generation companies. They know their businesses because they live them, and know their communities because they live here. Rouses is the same way. We all operate true to how and where we started. If you lose that, you can lose it all.” —Donny Rouse, CEO, 3rd Generation

lot of hours. But she was running her own business at the time we met, so she under stood what it means to run a family business, and the hours it takes to be successful. But we talked a lot about it, and still do. We have to continue working hard, long hours, you name it, to continue to be successful in our business, of course, but also successful in providing our customers with the best products and services we can find.” He feels a particular urgency to get things right, because any multi-generational business can falter the further you get from the day it was founded. “You know, everyone says the third generation is the one that’s going to mess up the family business,” Donny said. “And certainly, many people have told me that over the years! But that’s not an option for me. We’re not going to fail. We’re going to be successful and continue thriving as a company. I feel that way, and so do my cousins in the business, my dad, the whole family: We feel that way because we’re doing the work, building the careers, raising up team members, adapting to conditions whenever they arise but most of all, keeping the customer and the community front and center. We’re going to be a successful company for a long time.” Those team members are the lifeblood of Rouses. “Without our team, we couldn’t be successful,” he told me. “We have 7,000 team members who count on me to make the right decisions to grow the company and keep moving it forward. So I need to make sure that we’re taking care of them. Our team members are constantly voting us Best Place to Work in the United States, and that is a very proud achievement for the company, one that we value highly.” Rouses Markets spends a lot of time helping team members cultivate careers rather than just holding the same jobs indefinitely. “We want to make sure we give our team members the right training that they need to be happy

the retail price and cost for every single item in a grocery store. And, even more important, he always wanted our team members and customers to be happy.” Donny also learned from his dad to move quickly, and make hard decisions. “It’s not always the right decision, but you need to make it and move forward. If you get it wrong, you can change your mind and adjust course. But you need to keep moving forward.” That, he said, is one of the big advantages that family-owned stores like Rouses Markets have over the big national chains — and that directly benefits the customers. “We have to be nimble. A lot of these giant grocery chains that come into our communities, they have so many people that have to approve a process or approve a change, that it takes them months to make decisions and do the right thing.” Rouses, being family owned, doesn’t have that bureaucracy. “We can make the calls that help the customer, and we can do it quickly. We always do what we think is the right thing — but if we’re wrong, we’re fast to admit it, and we’ll fix it.” A lifetime in the business has allowed Donny to develop a certain intuition, which definitely helps guide his decisions. Another thing that people who’ve grown up in a family business know is it takes a lot of hours; even when you’re not in the office, your mind might still be working on some problem affecting some aspect of the family business — in Donny’s case, any one of the 66 Rouses stores across the Gulf South. I asked him if his wife, Kara, had any idea what she was getting herself into when they started dating. “Yeah,” Donny laughed, “the job takes a

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