Shoppers may have been prepared for the first snow storm earlier this week, but they hit area grocery stores on Tuesday and early Wednesday to replenish cupboards as another big snowfall was gripping the area.
At Walmart and other grocery stores, shelves on many aisles were stripped clean by those wanting to stock up.
On Tuesday, customers filled their carts with meat, frozen foods, canned goods, firewood and other items in fear they would be snowed in or without power.
Taylor Brasher said when she went to Walmart in Pine Bluff on Tuesday to pick up a few items for breakfast, shelves were bare.
"There were so many people in there with their buggies overflowing," said Brasher. "There were long lines for every checkout."
Brasher said it was reminiscent of the early days of the covid-19 arrival when panicked shoppers reached for whatever was available.
"It was very similar to the pandemic with a lot of items missing," said Brasher. "As quick as the stockers were putting items on the shelves, people were pulling them off."
While Tuesday was cold and sunny, the forecast for Wednesday was for 5 to 8 inches of snow, and the forecast was on target. Snow started early in the day and came harder as the day progressed. By mid-afternoon, Pine Bluff had received another 7 inches of snow, but as night fell, the snow was still coming. Combined with what fell earlier in the week, the area had received more than a foot of the white stuff. Travel was treacherous as any thawing that took place on Tuesday refroze, turning city streets into sheets of ice beneath the new covering of snow.
From grocery stores' frozen food aisles to the produce section, items were few and far between. The weather also forced early closures and late openings for many stores in the area.
A winter storm facility status provided by Walmart to assist their customers and the communities they serve to help them plan for storms and possible consequences reported 310 stores across the country that were closed.
Many of the Super 1 Foods locations also were experiencing fuel outages and supply shortages due to the ongoing inclement weather conditions. Those stores also closed early Tuesday due to the weather and delayed their store opening the following day.
Judy Saucier, an operational manager at Spring Market grocery in Redfield, said she is usually at work by 6 a.m. so she can open at 7. But that didn't happen on Wednesday. She said she couldn't get out of her driveway and someone with a four-wheel drive vehicle had to come get her and take her to work, meaning she didn't get the doors open until 8:30. It wasn't long before customers were jamming the aisles.
"We're very, very busy," she said at mid-day, adding that she and two other employees were the only ones at work.
Saucier said the store was out of milk and eggs, and that after a bread delivery was made, those items are almost gone as well.
She said the problem has been that the store, because of the bad weather, had not received a food truck. One was canceled, she said, and the truck that did come didn't bring perishables.
Asked what was left, Saucier said there was a little meat.
"We have things to make soup with," she said. "That's always good -- making soup."
Because the weather was supposed to worsen over the course of the day, Saucier said she was closing the doors at 3 p.m.
At Food Wise in Pine Bluff, store manager Dion Smith was taking it all in stride on Wednesday. He said the store was busy and he was out of milk and eggs, but that was to be expected.
"Really, it's just business as usual," Smith said. "It's a standard thing. When we get snow in the forecast, everybody starts buying stuff. Other than milk and eggs, we've got most everything else."