MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mid-South grocery stores are struggling to keep food on the shelves because of the rush caused by the coronavirus outbreak. They’re now asking customers to stop panicking.
Randy Stepherson grew up in the grocery business. His father owned them and now he and his siblings operate 9 Superlo stores in the Mid-South.
He says those hoarding food are stressing out the grocery store supply chain. The problem starts with wholesalers.
“Their inventory has been depleted. They have a lot of outs,” Stepherson said. “The manufacturers can’t produce it fast enough. There’s not enough truck drivers. The warehouse today is still selling groceries faster than they’re able to bring them in.”
Stepherson let WREG inside one of his Superlo warehouses to see the mounds of stored food. He says there’s enough in the food pipeline to go around.
“There’s going to be groceries. If people would start buying at a more normal pace, we could get restocked and built back up,” Stepherson said.
The owner of the distribution warehouse for Superlo food stores says everything is going fast, but toilet tissue is the number one thing. The owner says 11 truckloads came in on Friday, and by the weekend it was all gone.
Kroger’s CEO says daily shipments to its stores are not enough to keep up with the demand. Customers empty shelves as soon as they’re stocked.
The demand for groceries leads to a need for more workers. At a time when other industries suffer because of the onset of the coronavirus, those in the grocery business are hiring.