Retailers can’t keep shelves stocked

From toilet paper to disinfectants to water, local retailers are having a hard time managing inventory as products continue to fly off the shelves at unprecedented rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hysteria that has followed has been something to see, according to Chris Anthony, manager of Country Harvest Family Market in Palmerton.

“It’s been crazy; there’s been a lot of panic buying going on,” Anthony said. “It makes it very difficult to keep up.”

Anthony added, “Our supply chains are very, very stressed because of the unusually high demand.

There’s just not enough trucks and manpower to move the product from the suppliers warehouses to our facility,” he said. “That’s really the problem that we’re seeing right now, and that’s true for just about every retail outlet out there that sells the same kinds of products that we sell, whether it’s a Walmart or Giant.”

Anthony noted his store is taking as many precautions as possible.

“We are preparing for what may come next; (possibly) limiting the number of customers in store at a time, (possibly) some sort of curbside pickup or delivery, possible ways to limit the number of people in the buildings and limit their proximity to each other,” he said. “If we’re asked to do that.”

However, Anthony stressed that hasn’t been the case as of yet.

“That is not what we’ve been asked to do,” he said. “The state has contacted us that we should come up with some kind of contingency plans for being able to operate and also reduce the number of people in the store, whether it’s through any of those options.”

Anthony said the business has always done a good job of cleaning and sanitizing regularly.

“But, we’ve taken additional steps by adding some staff to perform cleaning duties more frequently to sanitize hand baskets, shopping carts that are used, sanitize PIN Pads (the store’s electronic credit card terminal) where customers would be touching them more frequently,” he said. “We have also provided gloves to our cashiers to wear, but it’s up to their discretion.”

It’s been much the same at the Jim Thorpe Market, according to store manager Norm Eckley.

“It’s been going crazy,” Eckley said. “We’re doing our best to keep the shelves full (with) whatever we can get in our deliveries; a lot of our warehouses are limited on stuff that they send out, too.”

With talks of quarantines and lockdowns, Eckley said the frenzy really picked up steam in recent days.

“It’s been nonstop since probably Thursday, since everything went hectic,” he said.

In between, Eckley said the store is doing all it can to meet the needs of its customers.

“Our registers are sanitized every day and sprayed down, our bathrooms are cleaned, we have more sanitation displays throughout the store, just trying to keep up with whatever we can do,” he said. “The only thing we can do is keep our doors open and try to service our customers the best that we can.

Whatever we can do, we’ll try to do for our customers.”

According to a post on Facebook, the waiting line at Thomson’s Meat Market in Walnutport was out the door on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Giant announced that until further notice, all 24-hour store location will close at midnight and reopen at 6 a.m. the following day. The decision came as part of the company’s continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic to allow store team members additional time to sanitize and restock shelves as daily deliveries arrived.