Grocery stores slammed as blizzard hits Northeast

For Wegman's Food Markets, a family-owned grocery chain with 81 locations throughout the Northeast, the forecast of a historic blizzard headed to the region Friday is a mixed blessing.

Jo Natali, a spokeswoman for the Rochester, N.Y., company, tells MSN Money that business at some stores was up 300% Thursday. The spike in business, however, isn't going to last, especially if forecasts calling for as much as two feet of snow to the area prove accurate.

"It will be pretty quiet over the next few days," she said in an interview. "It all evens out."

The storm is especially taxing on providers of staples such as milk, bread and eggs. People start hoarding the ingredients for French toast when serious weather events are expected to hit their regions.

"Why people do it I don't know," said Jim Lesser, vice president of sales and marketing for Oakhurst Dairy in Portland, Maine, in an interview. The dairy produces milk, sour cream and cottage cheese. "It just happens."

Oakhurst, which began preparing for the storm earlier this week, is running special deliveries to stores that sell through their morning deliveries within hours. 

People also buy food that can be easily prepared in the event of a power outage, such as peanut butter and luncheon meat, according to Mona Golub, a spokeswoman for Golub Corp., which owns and manages 130 Price Chopper supermarkets in the Northeast.

"We are not running short of anything that I am aware of," says Golub, whose family has been in the grocery business for 80 years. The company has merchandising plans in place in the event of inclement weather.

Bread producers are also under pressure. LaMarca & Sons of Malden, Mass., which calls itself New England's largest independent distributor of quality breads and rolls, is trying to keep up with orders. A recorded message on its phone line says, "the drivers are doing their best to get your delivery."

Egg consumption also rises during storms. Farmers, though, can't get chickens to lay eggs faster ahead of inclement weather. In fact, Mitch Head, a spokesman of the United Egg Producers, points out that chickens never take a day off and always lay an egg per day.

"All of our folks are doing the best they can," said Head, whose organization represents farmers that own 95% of the nation's egg-laying hens.

--Jonathan Berr wonders if he should have bought a snow-blower. Follow him on Twitter @jdberr.
 

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