ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110080
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
When the forecasters say snow, most people think of one thing - food. There are the necessities of break and milk. There is the junk food (although that could be defined as a necessity for some).
And as this storm proved, there is beer.
All of this means people have been flooding the area's grocery stores for days. The run on food, combined with a snowstorm that has paralyzed much of the East Coast, has meant shortages of some groceries at many local stores. Bread has been the most difficult commodity to stock.
The Christiansburg Food Lion, for example, sold more than 350 loaves in less than one day before the storm even hit. A replenishment of the bread supply on Tuesday lasted only three hours before the shelf was empty again, assistant manager Robert Linkous said. Eggs and milk, must-buys for people in forced hibernation, also have been selling out.
"They cleaned us out," he said. "You couldn't move in here a couple of days before the storm hit."
Even the Deli Mart in Blacksburg, which also sells gas, is out of bread. Manager Mary Price said the delivery truck came on Monday, but its first priority was hospitals and nursing homes, leaving her without bread since Saturday. The store and filling station were closed on Sunday and Monday because Price and a co-worker were stranded at home.
"I get 10 calls a day, do you have any bread?" said Price. Many of her other supplies so far are intact.
Grocery trucks from Food Lion's headquarters in Salisbury, N.C., which also was hit by the storm, started delivering supplies to the chain's area stores on Tuesday after no trucks were allowed out on Monday, said Greg Shires, assistant manager at Food Lion's Blacksburg store.
Local and out-of-state milk distributors also resumed deliveries on Tuesday. "Today [Wednesday] we're starting to see more and more vendors out," Shires said. "It's slow."
Scott Wade, co-owner of the Wade's Supermarkets grocery store chain, said his company's Richmond grocery supplier, Richfoods, also has been snowed under and is having trouble getting trucks in and out of its facilities. Three to five grocery trucks make deliveries to each of Wade's stores every week, but not all of these trucks - including one that was supposed to arrive on Wednesday - have made it into Southwest Virginia.
Though milk, produce and frozen foods have not been a problem, Wade said other grocery items have been difficult to stock through the storm. He added that deliveries seem to be running a day behind.
"We are doing everything we can to accommodate as many people as we can accommodate and doing it gladly in hopes that we're going to continue to get a steady supply of goods," he said.
Wade added he hopes customers will be patient through the storm. Other grocery chains, he added, are in the same ball game.
"Hopefully this is going to happen only once in our lifetime," he said.
Some restaurants also are reporting problems maintaining food supplies. The usual supply truck scheduled to deliver goods last Friday did not make it to The Renaissance in Pulaski.
"Actually, we're running short of everything," said Joey Dice, head server at the restaurant.
Most restaurants, however, are running out of customers, rather than food supplies. Kevin Murphy, general manager of the Farmhouse in Christiansburg, said many banquets were canceled. The restaurant, which closed at 8 p.m. Saturday, reopened Tuesday night.
"Business is really, really down," he said. "It's not what it would be without the snow."
Staff writers Paul Dellinger and Kenneth Singletary contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gene Dalton. Eleanor Palmer of Blacksburg uses her broomby CNBto attack the pile of snow that covers her car. The Warm Hearth
Village resident wasn't planning on traveling; she just wanted it to
be clean before another snowfall made the job bigger. color.