The growing concerns around the spread of COVID-19, and the relevant measures taken by the governments, have put an extra burden on local retailers. Since last Friday Estevan grocery stores experienced extra traffic and increased sales.
Lifestyles talked to Southern Plains Co-op general manager Brian Enns about the current situation at their three locations.
“Since Friday it’s been very busy in the food store here in Estevan and in all our food stores. We have stores in Oxbow and Carlyle as well,” said Enns.
Co-op sales at least doubled over the weekend in comparison to their regular rate. As a result, some items were sold out, but are the shelves are getting refilled as the supplies come in.
“Our shelves are somewhat depleted as we wait for the new product to arrive,” Enns said.
On Tuesday evening, there were some empty spots in the store, and some shelves were loose, as the store was running short on some products. However, most of the positions could still be found and more items came in on Wednesday.
With the higher demand, the Southern Plains Co-op had a two refill bottle per person limitation over the weekend, but Enns noted that this has been lifted. As for the grocery supplies, the trucks arrive on a schedule, which cannot be altered, so the stores across the province and the country are all waiting for their turn for delivery.
“Supply chain is being challenged at this time right now for sure just with what’s happening in the country,” said Enns.
As soon as the product comes in to their warehouse, the co-op team does their best to restock the shelves as quickly as possible.
“We keep trying to fill them as often as we can,” said Enns. “There is a little bit of a challenge on right now. Our team is working hard to help our customers out and we’ll continue to do that, and we’ll continue to keep ordering product and keep bringing it in and making shoppers as comfortable as we can when they come into the store.”
He added that their employees have been very good helping out where they could and keeping the store restocked as much as they could at this point in time. There were some changes in the employee schedule over the weekend to ensure that the store was restocked.
Southern Plains Co-op also adopted another measure to accommodate the COVID-19 situation. Starting March 17 and until April 15, Co-op is offering a new service to help people affected by the virus to get through these difficult times.
“I know there are people that maybe feel uncomfortable coming into the store or those in self-isolation. We are offering free delivery, so we will help them the best we can as well,” said Enns.
The service is offered in all three locations. To utilize it people can just call or email their local store. The contact information for each particular store can be found on their Facebook page.
