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Storm of customers hits stores before snow, game
YOUNGSTOWN
As a big snowstorm bore down on the region from the West Saturday, shoppers raided stores for supplies.
They got ready not only for the weather, but for the Super Bowl, which begins at 6:30 this evening as the Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots in Glendale, Ariz.
The best place to be then is in your recliner with your bag of chips and your remote. But if you’re going out, be careful: By late afternoon today, meteorologists predict, there may even be some sleet and freezing rain mixed in with the snow.
21 WFMJ-TV meteorologist Andrew DiPaolo and the National Weather Service in Cleveland concurred that the snow would begin this morning between 4 and 6 a.m. and would be light at first.
The snow will be heavy at times from late this afternoon well into the evening, the National Weather Service said. The low temperature will be 15 and the high 30, said DiPaolo.
Sgt. Michael Wilson of the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Canfield Post said people who are going to be out driving need to follow all the old common-sense rules.
“Drive with windows cleared,” he said. “Drive slow, allow extra time and stopping distance. If you don’t feel comfortable driving, don’t do it. And if you have to drive, try to wait until later in the day.”
Wilson said Saturday’s traffic in the shopping corridors in Boardman and Austintown didn’t appear any busier than usual.
“It’s always busy in Boardman,” he said.
But inside the stores, they definitely noticed a difference.
At the Giant Eagle in Austintown, a grocery-department manager who declined to give his name, said the store was busy all day.
“I’m swamped here,” he said when The Vindicator contacted him in the late afternoon. “Everybody’s up front.”
At Marc’s in Boardman, the situation was the same. An assistant manager said that between the storm and the game, the store had record-breaking sales.
“We are absolutely swamped,” she said. “We have every register open with lines into the aisles.”
Some shelves were getting bare, she said, and re-stocking might be affected by the storm if trucks due in tonight are slowed down.
At Home Depot in Boardman, shovels, snow blowers and salt were the big-selling items.
“We are out of salt,” an assistant manager said. “We have three snow blowers left,” he said, adding that they’re the larger, more expensive ones.
Twenty shovels are left out of hundreds, he said.
Though the salt is gone, people were still buying sand, he said.
And while no more inventory was coming in Saturday night, he expected some stragglers would be in when the store re-opened this morning at 8.
The snow is going to continue until Monday afternoon, when it will start to taper off, DiPaolo said. Monday will be windy, with blowing snow. He is predicting 5 to 9 inches for our area.
The National Weather Service, however, is predicting 8 to 12 inches.