HOUSTON – We are now on week four of empty grocery store shelves where the toilet paper and hand sanitizer is supposed to be. Many of you are wondering when inventories and grocery shopping will ever get back to normal.
“That’s the big question,” said H-E-B’s Scott McClelland. “The big unknown here is, unlike a hurricane where you see the storm coming and then it hits, and then it leaves… is there’s a lot of uncertainly around COVID-19 is that we don’t exactly know when this will peak.”
Toilet paper is still a hot commodity. Out of the seven stores we checked (Aldi, Kroger, H-E-B, Wal Mart, Michoacana, Dollar Tree and Joe V’s Smart Shop), only Joe V’s had some in stock.
“We’re getting more every day,” McClelland said, hoping not to send consumers into another frenzy.
While he said everything is under control, he worries how long suppliers will be able to keep up.
“Whereas before the demand was from customers wanting to come in and get more, I think the challenge now is are suppliers going to be able to run their plants as aggressively enough as back east the COVID virus takes its toll and absenteeism on manufacturing plants,” McClelland said.
Free Same-Day Grocery Delivery for Seniors
H-E-B is offering free same-day delivery to people 60 and over with Favor. You can order a maximum of 25 items through the app or call 1-833-397-0080.
“There’s limited capacity,” McClelland said. “So we can’t do it for every senior in the City of Houston. But I think last we week we did about 25,000 order overs Texas to seniors.”