FLORIDA FOOD RETAILERS RECOVERING FROM FRANCES, KEEP EYE ON IVAN

JON SPRINGER

Barely recovered from the devastation of August's Hurricane Charley, Florida food retailers last week were drying off from Hurricane Frances and fretting over a possible strike three from Ivan.

While Charley was a relatively fast-moving storm which cut a clear northeast path across the state beginning Aug. 13, Frances, which first hit Florida Sept. 4, was large and lumbering, dumping inches of rain and spreading high winds virtually all over the state, but particularly hard on the Atlantic Coast. Supermarket operators in Florida said between mandatory and voluntary evacuations, and power outages and damage resulting from the storm, as many as three of every four grocery stores in the state had to be closed at least temporarily. Larger-scale evacuations and a wider swath than Charley also put a greater strain on distribution centers, retailers said.

Retailers were busy last week restocking stores that were overshopped in anticipation of the storm as well as others that could not be restocked due to evacuations, curfews and travel restrictions. Items such as milk, bread, bottled water and ice were once again in short supply and heavy demand. Having gone through a similar situation just weeks before, retailers were better prepared this time, but frustrated by the inability to act as quickly as they wanted given the storm's slow movement and messy aftermath.

"Our distribution was interrupted, but not to the same extent it was [with Hurricane Charley]," Kathy Lussier, spokeswoman for Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie stores, told SN last week. "Our merchandising, distribution and logistics teams worked very closely together and we were successful in moving trucks to areas where they were needed. We also tracked the storm closely and did a better job of anticipating where we would need help.

"We're restocking our stores as fast as we can and as soon as it is safe to," she added.

Around 50 Winn-Dixie stores were still closed due to power outages or damage last week, Lussier said. At the height of the storm, 355 of the 440 Florida Winn-Dixies were closed, she added. Winn-Dixie increased its production of bottled water by switching lines at milk production facilities to produce water as well as milk, Lussier said.

Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, which operates 125 Florida stores, had just five still closed by the middle of last week, said Shane McEntarfer, the chain's Florida-based spokesman. The storm forced the temporary closure of three-fourths of Albertsons' stores.

Albertsons employees from other regions of the country joined the parade of communications workers and electricians imported to help Florida get back up and running. On Wednesday, about 130 Albertsons employees from its Acme division near Philadelphia and Shaw's division near Boston arrived to help restock Florida Albertsons stores, McEntarfer said.

All but 22 of Wal-Mart Stores' 209 stores and distribution facilities in Florida were open by Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Bentonville, Ark.-based merchant, told SN. As many as 150 facilities were closed at least temporarily, she said.

Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets said that some of its stores were without power last week and that stores overshopped in anticipation of the storm may be slow to restock. Publix, which has most of its 826 stores in Florida, also said it will change the name of its ongoing relief fund to Frances Relief Fund.

Tampa-based Kash n' Karry, a division of Delhaize Group, had all its stores up and running by midweek, said spokeswoman Camille Branch-Turley, adding that power outages downed some stores for periods ranging up to 36 hours. The chain had 36 of its 103 stores open during the height of the storm. Its sister chain, Food Lion, said in a statement that its stores in the Jacksonville and Daytona areas had reopened by Tuesday.

Retailers in the meantime are keeping an eye on Hurricane Ivan, which last week was charging through the Caribbean and, forecasters said, could make contact in southwestern Florida early this week. "We'll be prepared," said Branch-Turley.