CLARKESVILLE, Ga. — As forecasts called for dangerous winter weather this weekend, Now Habersham found shoppers pouring into hardware stores and big-box retailers across Northeast Georgia on Wednesday, driving sales far above normal and quickly emptying shelves of storm essentials.
At Habersham Hardware and Home Center on Ga. 115, assistant manager Jeff Byrd told Now Habersham the store was already sold out of several high-demand items by Wednesday afternoon.
“We’re sold out of a lot of stuff. People aren’t exactly panicking, but they’re sure coming in,” Byrd said, estimating customer traffic was running about 40 percent higher than usual. Shoppers were buying propane tanks, heaters, generators, gas cans, shovels and ice melt.
Byrd said an emergency supply truck was scheduled to arrive Friday morning to replenish depleted inventory.
“We’ve got lines of traffic here,” he said. “We’ve got both cash registers running. Everybody’s helping everybody.”
At the Walmart store, front-end manager Maria Owenby told Now Habersham the store was also seeing heavy foot traffic, though shelves remained stocked.
“We’re seeing high volume this afternoon, but we still have plenty of staples in stock,” Owenby said. “We have milk, bread, dry goods, canned goods. People are buying snow shovels and ice-melting solutions, but there are still plenty of those left as well.”
Calls from Now Habersham to the manager’s desk at the Walmart store were not returned as of press time.
Demand for generators was especially strong in Cornelia. Jeremy Gattis, store manager at the Lowes, told Now Habersham the store received a major shipment Wednesday morning and was preparing for another overnight delivery.
“I just got a truck of 200 generators this morning, and I should have another truck of 200 tonight for anybody who is looking for a generator with a potential ice storm,” Gattis said.
Gattis said the store sold about 120 generators the previous day and briefly sold out, prompting customers to wait inside the store for hours until a delivery arrived late Wednesday night.
“There were people waiting for about six hours in the store until my truck got here,” he said. “There’s a huge demand in the population that are seeking generators.”
Gattis said he opened the store early Wednesday after customers gathered outside before normal business hours.
“I had to open the store early yesterday because there were people standing outside waiting on generators,” he said.
An Ingles manager in Clarkesville referred Now Habersham’s request for comment to the company’s corporate headquarters in Asheville, N.C. Messages left Thursday afternoon for the chain’s chief financial officer and spokesperson had not been returned.
In White County, demand appeared even stronger. Graham Rogers, owner of Rogers Ace Hardware, told Now Habersham his store was experiencing one of its busiest days of the season.
“It’s crazy, and crazy is an understatement,” Rogers said. “They’re buying everything — sleds, ice melt, frost covers, batteries, flashlights, Mountain Dew, water. If we had propane, I could sell it out, but we’re already sold out.”
Rogers estimated sales were running about 80 percent above normal as residents prepared for potential snow and ice across Northeast Georgia.
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