(Bloomberg) – Texas restaurants are throwing out stale food, grocery stores are closing early amid stock shortages and residents are struggling to find basic necessities as a cold blast continues to boost supply chains.
At Tarka Indian Kitchen, a chain of eight locations in Texas, fresh vegetables and meat were thrown away after being closed for days. The same goes for Coolgreens, which sells salads and sandwiches, while Milkshake Concepts had to throw out stock due to a burst pipe. Similar stories pile up during a historic cold that swept away power and devoured roads.
At a Whole Foods Market store in The Woodlands, Texas, two women were heard exchanging tips on where to get a gallon of milk, while another person asked a store employee to buy the entire stock of bottled water. .
The situation is so dire in Houston, an important city for dining out, and some people have a list of restaurants that are open and have food supplies. Late Thursday, a look at restaurants in the area showed that there was no more food, unexpectedly closed or only available for large group orders. As a result, people have been complaining about problems using UberEats and DoorDash.
Tinku CEO Tinku Saini said in an email that the issues extend beyond expired foods. ‘We went over to work through the water challenges – access to water, low water pressure and boiling water notices in some areas. Then we navigate with suppliers through the obstacles, as this is the safest way to deliver our products. ”
The challenges further limit residents’ access to food, as grocery store shelves remain barren in many areas. Supermarket chains such as Kroger Co have implemented purchase restrictions on items such as eggs and milk, while HEB Grocery Co. said the weather was ‘causing serious disruption in the food supply chain’.
A Kroger store in West Houston had no bread, milk, cheese, chicken, hot food and bottled water on Friday afternoon, after filling its shelves in the mornings. Buyers lined up at the store from 4 a.m., staff said.
Julia Dominguez, a social worker at Baylor College of Medicine, was relieved to get some snacks, paper plates and napkins, after a few days of not being able to get into grocery stores due to shopping.
“The last few days I was driving around looking for hot food because I had no power and water for 72 hours,” the 65-year-old said outside the store. “But I had shelter, so I’m not a complainant.”
Some chains that managed to stay open closed before sunset so the shelves could be refurbished overnight. Hard-to-find items in the Houston area include beef, bread, delicacies, frozen pizzas and milk. A visit to a HEB store in the northern suburbs of the city on Thursday afternoon found the product department with only a few bags of oranges.
“It was difficult to get food and petrol in,” said Lyndsey McDonald Garza, who lives in the Houston suburb of League City and owns a real estate agency in Galveston. “Grocery stores are either not open or only for a short while. We went to the convenience store because that is the only option. ‘
Target Corp. closed three stores in Texas and refilled food and water in stores still open. The Whole Foods Market chain from Amazon.com Inc. is ‘reopening all stores in the coming days’, a spokesman said in an email.
Read more: Water outages in Texas affect 14.4 million people: energy update
Suppliers also suffered problems. The chicken producer Sanderson Farms Inc. activated an emergency plan earlier this week and processed operations in Texas, Mississippi and Hammond, Louisiana. Yet by Tuesday, the company had lost power in as many as 200 of its 1,918 broiler houses. The storm also affected the delivery of eggs to hatcheries in the state.
Indeed, there is hope that operations will soon return to normal as services come online again and temperatures rise. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state network, said it was back to normal on Friday.
Related: Gas stations still dark as Texas emerges from freezing
Many restaurants, which have already endured a nightmare year through pandemic-driven shutdowns, face obstacles to reopening. Some companies are trying to adapt in the meantime.
Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, which has 142 establishments in Texas, said it could take a week or two until it is back to normal and full menus, though operations are resuming in most of the restaurants. The company has changed its menu and goes directly to its suppliers to pick up food.
When the lights at the 80-year-old original spot in Dallas flickered Monday, staff began giving away food to first responders instead of letting it decay.
“With the understanding that our food is good for no one when spoiled and these heroes need it most, I encourage everyone who can do the same,” said Dickey CEO Laura Rea Dickey.
(Add details of Kroger and Sanderson Farms from seventh paragraph)
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