North Texas Groceries Work to Restock Empty Shelves Following Days of Icy Roads
As temperatures slowly climb, more people are venturing out to see which grocery stores are open, and have food
By Yona Gavino and Allie Spillyards • Published February 19, 2021 • Updated on February 19, 2021 at 10:38 pm
Thursday Governor Greg Abbott announced to speed up a food supply chain hampered by days of icy roads across the state, he'd suspended commercial vehicle regulations, would open fuel supply lines and allow off-road diesel on Texas roads.
After a week of delays, H-E-B and Central Market said it 1,500 trucks on the road.
"We're so excited about that. And as the soon as the trucks back up to our bay, we're unloading those trucks just as fast as we can and we're getting all of the products on the shelves," said Director of Public Affairs Mabrie Jackson.
With shelves already looking better than they had over the last several days, Jackson said there will be an increase in supply over the next couple of days.
This week has seen long lines, empty shelves, and a mad dash to stock up at grocery stores.
On Friday, families, many who are running low on food, scrambled to restock their groceries.
Douglas Robertson had a strategy to find what he needed.
"I went to Walmart. They had water there, but they didn't have it at Albertsons. I went to different stores, that's just how I was rolling," he said.
A spokesperson for Kroger said the stores are limiting the following items to two per person: milk, orange juice, poultry, propane, water, bread, briskets, charcoal, eggs, firewood and frozen pizzas.
Meanwhile, Douglas said he had been dealing with busted pipes and hungry kids at home.
"I've been out just about every day. I've been moving around. I have to feed the kids, get firewood, find fire logs, stuff like that," said Robertson.
He's grateful to have a truck with 4-wheel drive -- in case any family or friends need supplies.
"I check on all of them. Nobody has told me if they need something, but if they do, I'm going to get in my truck and I'm going to make it across town. It isn't bad for me," Robertson said.
Walmart has an interactive map where people can check which stores are open in their city.
Across North Texas, around a dozen supercenters and neighborhood markets were closed Friday at one point.
"These guys have been working really hard. I've been able to come out to shop the last two or three days. They went from no stock on the shelf, to almost fully restocked," Bruce Marlin said.
He praised employees who spent the week working in grocery stores across DFW, like Gaynell Jackson, who works at Tom Thumb in Arlington.
"We ran out of firewood so many times I wanted to chop down a tree," Jackson said.
Jackson said the scramble to restock isn't over yet.
"It's not as busy as yesterday. So I feel like people got a lot of things they needed yesterday, however today, later on, I have a feeling we're going to have some more shoppers," Jackson said.
Both Kroger and HEB said employees were able to work at store locations that were closer to their homes this week.
Grocery Storewinter weatherfood shortages