Don’t Forget The Milk

BASIC STAPLES PART OF STORM PREPAREDNESS

Jocelyn Trejo, 7, left, and Pamela Trejo, 4, shovel snow Friday outside their apartment in Springdale. The pair, along with their father, were gathering snow to build a snowman. The family found a little fun after a winter storm closed area schools and many businesses.
FAMILY FUN
Jocelyn Trejo, 7, left, and Pamela Trejo, 4, shovel snow Friday outside their apartment in Springdale. The pair, along with their father, were gathering snow to build a snowman. The family found a little fun after a winter storm closed area schools and many businesses. FAMILY FUN

ROGERS — The scramble for bread and milk can be a winter standard in Northwest Arkansas.

Bread, milk and snacks are popular staples before a storm hits, said Dianna Gee, Walmart spokeswoman. Some customers also stock up on items that will help them beat a planned bout of cabin fever. The amount of freight Walmart is moving to meet store demand is like having a second Black Friday, Gee said.

Five hundred trucks of emergency merchandise went out to stores in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee this week.

“Some customers are planning for an ice storm and some customers are planning for a winter wonderland,” she said.

The stores get deliveries early to meet demand and Walmart’s Bentonville-based emergency operations team conferences with store managers and tracks inventory to fill shelves. This week she heard a logistics team member say he’d told his bread suppliers “if they’ll bake it, we’ll take it.”

Restocking is a science and requires a blend of cooperation from transportation, suppliers and employees.

“We have the merchandise,” Gee said.

The American Red Cross recommends keeping a threeday supply of nonperishable, easy to prepare food in case of a winter emergency and 3 gallons of water for each person in the household, also a three-day supply.

Flashlight and extra batteries, a first aid kit, extra blankets and warm clothes are also on the Red Cross list.

There was milk on the shelves Friday morning at Harps, 715 N. Second St., but if the milk truck didn’t arrive soon to restock it, the store was likely to run out, said Stephanie Murray, sales associate.

The day before and the day a storm hits are the busiest, Murray said.

“Wednesday it was packed in here,” she said.

B ethany Stephens of Rogers said she did have to run to the store Wednesday, but the crowd at Sam’s Club wasn’t bad early in the evening.

She picked up eggs and bread on her shopping trip, but said she tries to plan ahead on most pantry staples.

“I don’t let this house run out of milk,” Stephens said.

Stephens, who runs a food blog under the name The Food Adventuress, said she made pork tenderloin and wild rice as her form of comfort food and baked homemade toaster pastries with her two girls.

Got Milk?

Worldwide, dairy farms produced about 730 million tons of milk in 2011.

• India is the world's largest producer and consumer of milk, yet neither exports nor imports milk.

• New Zealand, Australia and the United States are the largest exporters of milk and milk products.

• China and Russia are the largest importers of milk and milk products.

• There are more than 6 billion consumers of milk worldwide.

• More than 750 million people live in dairy-farming households.

Source: United Nations

“I do have the tendency to hit the kitchen when there’s a snow or ice storm,” she said.

An easy at-home project is pizza, Stephens said. Crust can be easy to make and toppings can be any cheese and black olives or any veggies on hand.

“When you’re home, and cooped up, you definitely have flour and you defi nitely have time on your hands,” Stephens said.

She said she tries to be prepared with a tub filled with blankets and nonperishables such as peanut butter and jelly in case electricity goes out.

The initial rush before a storm is groceries, but customers might also pick up a foam cooler to pack with snow in case of an electrical outage, Gee said. Camping items are popular as well.

The demand, especially after a storm, is driven by the weather, Gee said.

Heavy ice can translate into a rush on wiper blades, Gee said. If there is a power outage people might be buying bottled water or an air mattresses to sleep away from home. Generosity to neighbors shows up in extra blankets and coats, she said.

By Friday, the hottest items were ice melt and scrapers at Walgreens, 1722 W. Walnut St., Rogers.

Carlos Mejia of Rogers was spraying his wiper blades with de-icer while his wife picked up a prescription.

He found himself in line at a Walmart Neighborhood Market on Thursday night to buy milk, right as the snow really started to come down, Mejia said.

“It was bad,” he said.

His two girls love milk and when they are home from school they eat and drink more than when they are in school. He bought an extra gallon Thursday to stock up.

“We were running out,” Mejia said, “that’s why I went to get some.”

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