Who are the new owners of Jerry Lee’s stores? What to know about Ramey’s Marketplace.
Jerry and Polly Lee opened their first grocery store in Jackson County 64 years ago and Saturday, Sept. 17, will be the last day for Jerry Lee’s supermarkets in Pascagoula and Gautier.
Both locations will reopen two days later under the Ramey’s Marketplace brand. The company now has 22 stores in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, including one in Poplarville. The corporate office is in Purvis.
Customers will see a few updates when the Ramey’s stores open in Jackson County, but most of the shopping experience will be familiar, said Brad Ramey, who oversees the operation of his family business.
A weekly advertising flier will go out each Wednesday, he said, listing the specials and showcasing the two-day weekend sales prices. The weekly ad for the Ramey’s in Poplarville shows the store offers flowers, beer and pick-5 meats along with a variety of sales on fresh produce, meat, grocery and frozen items.
The employees will keep their jobs at both stores, Ramey said. He brought some of his staff from a Jubilee store, which is one of the grocery stores in the Ramey’s chain, to answer any questions the employees in Pascagoula and Gautier might have. Ramey said he’s found it’s a lot easier for new employees to ask questions of their counterparts rather than their future bosses.
“This transition’s going to be a lot smoother than 90% I’ve ever done,” he said.
Both Ramey’s and Jerry Lee’s, along with Rouses and other independent grocers, use Associated Wholesale Groceries in Pearl River, Louisiana, he said. The warehouse opened in 2013, he said, and cut his freight rate from a warehouse in Memphis from 3.6% to 1.3%.
“That savings goes straight to the customer,” he said.
Shared history
“We are super excited to soon be a part of two great Mississippi communities,” Ramey posted on Facebook, and said his company’s success depends on doing what is right for the customers and staff.
Ramey’s now has 700 employees.
The Ramey story began in the 1950s in Mississippi, when Herbert Ramey Sr. and Herbert Ramey Jr. opened a store in Waynesboro and started a traveling grocery store in rural Wayne County, Ramey said.
“The rolling store consisted of a converted school bus that was stocked with sugar, flour, meal plus dairy goods and even ice cream,” Ramey said. “They had refrigerated coolers on DC current — basically a scaled down grocery store on wheels.”
Through the 1960s, the rolling store would travel to small communities up to 70 miles away from a warehouse next to the railroad tracks, he said.
Jerry and Polly Lee also started in the grocery business in the 1950s. They opened the Pascagoula store in 1958 in Pascagoula. In 1970, a fire completely destroyed the store and the Lees reopened the business on Ingalls Avenue just 120 days later.
The Gautier store opened in 2001, and the family saw both locations through the many changes that have occurred in the grocery business over more than six decades.
The deaths of Jerry Lee, Herbert Ramey
Jerry Lee died in February. His son and daughter, Mark Lee and Susan Lee Harris, operate the company.
Herbert Ramey Jr. died in August.
“I know this is very difficult for the Lee family and I know what they’re going through because my mentor, my best friend, my Dad passed away four weeks ago,” Brad Ramey said on Facebook. He asked people to respect the Lee family’s decision to sell the the grocery stores.
“I can relate to the Lees very well,” he said. Every day he picks up the phone to call his dad to talk about the grocery business, as they did every day for more than 30 years, he realizes his dad is no longer there, Ramey said.
“I’ve been passionate about what I do for a long time,” said Ramey. He shared the challenges of buying new stores right before the holidays and viewing complaints from customers on social media as an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive with strong customer service.
He got into the grocery business in 1990, when he and his new bride bought a 10,000 square foot store in a small town. They spent the first three years living in a trailer park, he said, while they grew the business along with his father.
“We built shopping centers,” he said, like the one recently opened in Poplarville.
While his father and mentor has passed on, Ramey said, “I am blessed beyond belief to have a dozen supervisors who are hard working, loyal. That makes everything easier.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2022 at 1:14 PM.
