SUPERMARKETS SLOWLY RECOVERING FROM ISABEL

Mark Hamstra

Supermarket operators in North Carolina and Virginia scrambled to find generators and procure emergency supplies like ice and bottled water as electrical power slowly returned in the wake of Hurricane Isabel.

Although none of the major chains in the region reported significant damage to their buildings, they lost what some said would total millions of dollars worth of perishables as power outages in some areas lasted for several days. Certain rural communities were not expected to get power back for several more weeks as the storm tore down electrical lines across a huge swath of the Mid-Atlantic.

"I think the estimates we've seen of $1 billion [total] damages from this storm are way under," said Michael J. O'Conner, president, Virginia Petroleum, Convenience and Grocery Association, Richmond. "Every frozen section in every supermarket and convenience store from Tidewater to Richmond to the Outer Banks [of North Carolina] has been thrown out and discarded. I can't imagine how much that loss is."

Although many chains reported being able to run their lights and cash registers using generators, many were not able to run their refrigeration units unless they found a very powerful generator, which a few operators were able to procure. Several stores placed refrigerated trailers in their parking lots to store some perishables, but only a fraction of each store's inventory could be salvaged.

Ukrop's Super Markets, Richmond, lost power in 24 of its 26 locations on the first night of the storm, and four days later it still had two stores without power, one of which was running on a generator that had to be brought down from New York City. By studying the anticipated path of the eye of the storm, Ukrop's executives predicted the 10 stores most likely to lose power and sent refrigerated trailers to those sites, according to Robert Kelley, vice president, operations.

"We were right on in determining which stores would lose power first, but what we didn't anticipate was that 24 stores would lose power," he said.

He said last week he did not yet have an estimate of the chain's total losses from the hurricane.

Ron Dennis, president and chief operating officer, Farm Fresh Supermarkets, a division of Supervalu, Minneapolis, said his maintenance team was able to bring in some powerful generators from Kentucky. All but one of the chain's 36 stores lost power on the first night of the storm.

"We brought in 12 generators to run refrigeration because that's all we could find," he told SN last week.

As of early last week, Farm Fresh still had four stores without power that were running on generators.

"We were well-prepared," Dennis said. "I've been through this several times when I was with Albertsons in Florida, and our people were able to make sure we didn't miss any opportunities to serve the community."

At Giant Food, Landover, Md., the chain had to postpone the grand opening ceremonies for its new perishables distribution center in Howard County, Md., because it was pressed into full service by the loss of power at the company's Landover facility. The Landover DC was in the process of shifting its operations into the Howard County site when the storm hit, complicating the transition, according to Barry Scher, vice president, public affairs.

"The storm couldn't have hit us at a worse time," he said.

He said Giant lost power in more than 70 of its 198 supermarkets, but most had power restored by early last week. Almost every store was impacted to some degree in terms of staffing and receiving deliveries.

Scher said the company "lost a lot of perishable product" in the stores and at the Landover DC, but he did not have an estimate yet last week of the total damages.

Food Lion, Salisbury, N.C., still had had no power restored at 40 of its stores by last Monday, but that number was down to 15 by the middle of the week, according Jeff Lowrance, a spokesman for the chain, which is owned by Brussels, Belgium-based Delhaize Group.

Lowrance said Food Lion sent 30 truckloads of ice and relief supplies to hurricane-devastated areas, including two truckloads of such emergency supplies as bottled water, diapers and canned food. Supplies included more than 1 million pounds of ice and 18,000 gallons of water.

Kroger, Cincinnati, which has about 80 stores in Virginia and North Carolina, could not be reached for comment, although observers said some of the chain's stores appeared to be running on generators in areas that were without power.

Tara Stewart, a spokeswoman for Harris Teeter, Matthews, N.C., said a few stores were still running on generator power last week, and all stores in affected areas were giving away free ice and water.

Safeway, which has 179 stores in areas that were affected by the storm, sent two, 25-ton truckloads of ice to distribute free in the parking lots of stores in Washington and Baltimore last week, according to Greg TenEyck, a spokesman for the Pleasanton, Calif.-based chain's Eastern Division.

TenEyck said the company lost power in about 48 or 49 stores, but most had their power restored within a few days. The company was able to use one full-store generator from its Genuardi's division, rotating it around to various stores to keep them running during the outages. Most stores used refrigerated trucks to salvage some of their perishables, he said.