Empty Store Shelves? Blame the Cold for Not Delivering the Goods

If you head out to your local grocery store today, you might be discover some empty shelves.

The cause? It's the same one responsible for just about every inconvenience these past couple days: the extreme winter weather conditions.

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Some Oak Forest and Tinley Park grocery stores haven't been receiving their daily deliveries because trucks have been delayed by road closures or mechanical difficulties.

Oak Forest's Food 4 Less store on 159th Street received its last delivery Sunday, and store manager Tana Sams said she wasn't sure when the next delivery would arrive. Trucks usually deliver merchandise to the store daily, Sams said, adding that, as of Tuesday afternoon, she hadn't been told when that would resume.

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Sams said she hadn't toured the store yet to see how low the stock was when it came to certain items. Sales had been brisk over the weekend because customers were stocking up in advance of the weekend's snowfall and the past two days of extreme cold, she said.

Deliveries to Walt's Food Center in Tinley Park returned to normal Tuesday, but the weather had caused a slight disruption, said store manager Steve Remus. Trucks either arrived late or not at all over the past couple days, he added.

In fact, the store's delivery from Pepsi didn't make it Monday because the company's truck's couldn't start because of the frigid temperatures, Remus said.

And like Food 4 Less, Walt's saw an influx of business over the weekend.

"People came in droves Saturday," Remus said.

Some stores' deliveries, though, were unaffected by the weather. The Jewel groceries in Tinley Park and Oak Forest both received their usually daily shipments as normal.

YOUR TURN: Have you noticed empty shelves at the grocery store? Tell us in the comments section.