The following is an excerpt from a letter written by Rene La Chaux, who is an adviser and business partner to People’s Grocery. In this excerpt Mr. La Chaux tells the story of what West Oakland used to be like when he was a youth. You’ll note that the community was quite different from what it is today. People’s Grocery is working with Mr. La Chaux to publish a book about his life and stories of West Oakland.

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I am a long time resident of the community of West Oakland. I grew up in West Oakland, attended public schools in West Oakland and began my career in West Oakland. During my childhood and teenage years, West Oakland was bursting with small businesses and industry. Large food processing companies, including Nabisco, Carnation Milk, Coke, Svenharts Bakery and Perky Pie Company, had plants in West Oakland and employed hundreds of people from the area.

When I was young grocery stores were located on what seemed like every other block. These stores all offered fresh produce and, with the exception of one or two stores, the owners were residents of West Oakland. Most residents of West Oakland at that time also had fruit trees in their yards and grew vegetables. There were three large food markets in West Oakland at that time: Safeway, Ponds Market and Liberty Market.

Liberty Market was the location of my first job. Every Tuesday my friends and I would ride in the back of a flatbed truck and deliver the weekly sales flyers to West Oakland residents. My other job, although unpaid, was assisting my father, who was employed by Southern Pacific. I would help to load food and supplies onto the Southern Pacific Passenger train at 5 o’clock in the morning on the day he would go to work. Many employees including my father would bring the unused portions of food home to share with family and friends. My grandfather was a Baptist Pastor who lived in New Orleans and also owned a grocery store in his neighborhood.

Fresh produce was abundant in West Oakland during the 1960s and before. My friends and I would walk into Fruit Town, which was the area were the produce wholesalers had their businesses. We frequented the area on such a regular basis we were familiar to them. Most of the residents of West Oakland were from Texas, Mississippi or Louisiana and stores provided the ethnic foods we desired. But in the early 1980s the ownership of the majority of the Grocery stores in West Oakland had changed and instead of focusing on supplying food, the new owners focused on selling alcohol and non-food related items. Safeway and Liberty Market relocated outside of the community. No longer could you go to the store and purchase fresh produce or food products.

Each year of my adult life I would spend a week in New Orleans visiting family. Friends would always ask me to bring Louisiana and Texas ethnic food products back. Each year I would bring food back to California and I always had to purchase additional luggage or use my sister’s luggage to accommodate the demand. After 2 or 3 years of bringing food from New Orleans to Oakland I realized there is a strong demand for ethnic food in Oakland, the same food that normally had been provided by local stores, but no longer.

In November 1987 I decided to establish Louisiana Distributors and provide food to the Oakland community at large. I continued over the next 5 years to service a niche market in the Bay Area for Southern Foods, Spices and Seasonings. I visited New Orleans many times during this period and established Broker and Distributor relationships with the major food processors of Louisiana: Zatarain, Community Coffee, Deep South Blenders, Cajun Fry, just to name a few. My goal was to be able to service the Oakland community with the food they enjoyed. No just Top Ramen and potato chips.

I rented an office in downtown Oakland in 1992 that had office space and a kitchen. I began processing New Orleans-style foods, snacks and spices and selling them at the local Flea Market on the weekends. Soon I was a familiar fixture at many local and regional festivals and events. I began looking for a place to expand my business and leased a two-story building with a warehouse. I serviced a number of restaurants in Oakland and soon I was in demand to provide my products at many restaurants. I had a staff of 4 people, which included 2 salespeople, 1 administrative person, and 1 warehouse/general labor person. I was very successful and I eventually became president of the African American Merchants Association. To this day my company, Louisiana Distributors, brokers and wholesales a variety of specialty foods.

One day, while driving in West Oakland, I saw a small van with People’s Grocery on the side. I stopped, introduced myself to the driver and he explained that they provided healthy food to West Oakland residents. I got the contact information for People’s Grocery and have been working with them ever since to bring healthy and ethnic food products to West Oakland. The service that People’s Grocery provides is a service that I had dreamt of providing to the community one day. It was indeed a pleasure to see someone who cared about the needs of a community whose food needs were not a priority for the grocery turned liquor stores in the community.

Rene La Chaux
June 2008

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