ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110115
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
SHOPPERS GET READY for the latest forecast of more snow by gathering in the food.
Bread, milk and eggs were in short supply across Western Virginia Wednesday as wholesalers scrambled to deliver store orders delayed by last weekend's snow and shoppers stocked up to prepare for more snow expected tonight and Friday.
Rural grocers, at the bottom of the food distribution chain, were hurting the most. Customers haven't been able to buy milk, bread or eggs at the Blue Ridge Grocery in Hardy since Monday. "They've been in here fussing and raising Cain about it," said clerk Peggy Greer.
Store shelves had begun to return to normal Wednesday, but the Virginia Department of Emergency Services urged Virginians to stock up on food, medicines and fuel for wood stoves, fireplaces and kerosene heaters in preparation for the next winter storm.
Roanoke's Rainbo Bakery was selling out as fast as it could produce bread. People tried to buy it straight off the trucks in grocery store parking lots, Nina Sorrels in the bakery's personnel office said Wednesday.
Store managers said one reason groceries were disappearing so fast was that some people were buying for neighbors and other family members. Others seemed so frightened about more snow that they were overbuying for themselves - especially bread.
"My average customer is buying two, three or even four loaves," said Shane Robertson, manager of the Harris Teeter store in Salem. Tuesday night, he made a store announcement that 50 loaves had just come in and handed every one over to eager shoppers in the checkout lines.
Margaret Rosborough bought three long loaves and two gallons of milk Wednesday at the Food Lion on Shenandoah Avenue. She had three children and two grandchildren back home on Staunton Avenue Northwest. With children out of school, many families were hustling to keep them fed.
Nearly as soon as bread appeared on shelves, it was gone. ``We're trying not to ration it," said Kroger Co. spokesman Archie Fralin, "but we're trying to have some for everybody. It's a little bit of a sticky situation."
Roanoke's Valley Rich Dairy was taking up the slack for supermarket chains that could not bring milk from their warehouses, said General Manager Charlie Costigan.
"Our only shortage is that we can't get around to the customers fast enough," he said.
Kroger's Salem distribution center, processor of groceries for 65 stores in Virginia and North Carolina, is working around the clock to fill the demand, Fralin said. Last weekend's snow clogged delivery truck traffic from the Midwest to the East and "everything is late," he said.
Debbie VanDyke at Wade's Supermarkets in Blacksburg grieved Wednesday when she heard that a bread truck carrying 5,500 loaves of bread was stuck in snow somewhere.
Doris Morris, owner of McGhee's Groceries in Moneta, has been out of milk since Monday and bread since Tuesday. She said people are overreacting to the weather.
"Why would anybody need three or four gallons of milk if they're snowed in a couple of days?" she asked. "People go crazy. They wind up throwing half of it out."
Butter, cheese, chicken and canned biscuits also were getting scarce in some stores.
Mildred Clement of Roanoke's Hanover Avenue Northwest bought two of the last loaves of bread at BK Community Supermarket at Melrose Avenue and 19th Street Northwest on Wednesday afternoon. She was down to a half-loaf at home when she emerged from her house for the first time since Friday. Only a few bags of hoagie rolls were left on the bread shelves as she approached the checkout counter.
Store co-manager Rodney Brown said he was buying all the bread he could from bakery warehouses, but he was still waiting for employees to dig themselves out of the snow and stock new deliveries.
"We hope to get it done today," he said, "and be ready for it again."
Staff writer S.D. Harrington contributed information to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Steve Willis hustles to restock theby CNBbusy bread shelves at Tanglewood Kroger. color. Graphic: Map by KRT.
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