Winter storm slams door on last-minute shopping

A massive winter storm dubbed a “bomb cyclone” caused store closures, interrupted deliveries and snarled holiday shopping across the Northeast and Midwest.

“We’ve had multiple locations both last week and this week where we’ve had to close early due to inclement weather and staffing challenges due to travel restrictions, particularly in our western North Dakota stores,” Dennis Host, VP of marketing at St. Cloud, Minn.-based Coborn’s, told SN.

He said product deliveries to stores have also been delayed or canceled due to roads that became impassable due to high winds and blowing snow.

The winter storm also shut down travel across much of the Northeast, including upstate New York, where Tops Marts closed 45 locations in Erie and Niagara Counties at 2 p.m. Friday, Kathy Saulter, a Tops spokeswoman, told SN.

She said the Williamsville, N.Y.-based chain saw its stores handle about double their usual capacity on Wednesday and Thursday leading up to the storm, as customers stocked up on essentials such as milk, bread, and eggs, as well as holiday meal items.

Weather conditions would dictate store hours on Saturday, Saulter said. Typically, Tops stores remain open until 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, but it was unclear as of Friday afternoon whether or not that would be possible this year, she said.

“We’re watching the weather, and doing what Mother Nature tells us to do,” she said.

Tops normally partners with Instacart for home delivery, but that company’s drivers were prevented from making deliveries on Friday due to the storm, Saulter said.

In a statement provided to SN, Instacart said it was actively monitoring the winter storm and would keep customers and shoppers appraised of any adjustments to its operations.

As of Friday afternoon, the storm had knocked out power for more than 1.5 million people and caused thousands of flight cancellations, as high winds and heavy snow swirled and temperatures plunged across much of the country.

Among the other supermarket operators that reported disruptions to their operations were: