As a country girl, I love a good hardware store, but you can’t beat a feed store. If you’ve got a bug taking over your flowers or your lawn? Bag one and bring it to the feed store; they’ll identify it and recommend the best pesticide. Wondering if you should rotate your pastures and what kind of fertilizer to use? Feed stores have been helping those new to ranching for years. It’s the kind of knowledge and down-home service you’ll get at Benny G’s in the heart of Delcambre.
Owner Benny Goutierrez and his wife, Dana, fulfilled a dream of Benny’s when they purchased the store, from the previous owner, in 2000. Working in the feed business since he was 13, Benny says that by his 20’s, “I knew that I wanted to own my own store one day.”
Located just off Hwy. 14 in Delcambre, next to the railroad, the store was originally a train depot. It opened in the ‘60s as T & L Feed store and has passed through many hands and a few uplifts and additions. Today, Benny G’s is a rare piece of small-town America that continues to survive despite its larger (and online) competitors.
Customers flock to Benny G’s for everything from food for livestock and dogs, a great selection of boots including Xtra Tuf, Muckster Ankle, Muck Edgewater, and Lacrosse Grange, as well as caps and leather gloves. In the spring, there are baby chicks, including production reds, Rhode Island blues and black sexlinks, and gardeners come for seasonal vegetable plants. All the pesticides and herbicides you might need are here, along with animal wound care and worm medicine. Farm owners can buy hay. Hunters come for the wild deer feed. Benny G’s is the only store in Acadiana that handles Arrow-brand feeds. There are pet supplies. If you need a cane knife or a machete, this is your place. And, surprisingly, there is a variety of snaps for halters, dog chains or to make your own lead rope.
Much of their business comes from the sale of their own feed mixed for cattle, horses and show pigs. Benny attributes its popularity to its freshness noting, “Manufactured feed is often two to three weeks old by the time it gets to the store; we make ours daily.”
Just inside the back door is a bulletin board where folks post items for sale like laying hens, dogs, horses, cattle or sheep.
Another large part of the business comes from young 4-H members, whom Benny helps. “I grew up in Vermilion Parish raising cattle and showing them – and sheep – in 4-H,” he says. “My daughter showed in 4-H too, and I’ve always loved to help younger kids with their animals. I have a lot of hands-on experience feeding the animals and picking them out. I’ve helped young families starting out in 4-H by picking animals for them, then making sure they’re set up and checking up on them weekly. Now they come to my house every other weekend with their animal and practice their showmanship. Those relationships helped build my business.”
Benny’s knowledge, willingness to help and the store’s reputation for customer service bring customers as far as two and a half hours away. He has known many of his customers since he was a teen working at Thibodeaux Feed, and says that he knows what his regulars want when they walk in the door.
For Benny and Dana, forming long-term friendships with their customers and sharing their knowledge is the cornerstone of their business, and the reason Benny says that people still come to his feed store. “Some feed stores hurry to get to the next person; we take the time to talk to every customer and give them advice,” he says.
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