XENIA — Shoppers continue flocking to Kroger to stock their pantries with essential items — even if it’s just three at a time.
By 9:30 a.m. Friday at the Xenia store, the toilet paper aisle was empty, save for a dozen packs of paper towels. Bottled water pallets were gone. Disinfecting wipes were scarce — but not depleted.
Yellow signs on the shelves read “Due to high demand and to support all customers, we will be limiting the number of Sanitization, Cold and Flu related products to 3 each per customer.” The same note applied to paper and water products. In the toilet paper aisle, the sign simply stated that the store is “experiencing extreme supply limitations on bath tissue products” with an apology.
West Park Square Store Manager Matt Tye said the three pieces he’s thinking about right now are water, bread, and canned goods.
“We’re working on procurring extra product from other warehouses, other regions, from our third-party vendors as well,” he said.
As far as toilet paper and paper towels, Tye said the store was prorating down to about 30 percent, and that there would not be as much product in those areas for awhile.
Tye, who’s been the store manager for three years, said they’re “way over” budget every day.
“We will have a record sales week this week. This will be the biggest week this store has ever ran in its existence,” he said. “And that’s probably across the division as well. It’s unbelievably busy.”
The store manager said he’s in constant communication with division leadership, calling into conference calls every three to six hours. He said he’s offering overtime and unlimited hours to store team members now into early next week.
“Never in my 17 years [with Kroger] have I ever seen anything like this,” he said. “And my boss in his 40 years has never seen anything like this.”
