2020 Hometown Heroes

Page 58 2020 Hometown HEROES Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS May 14, 2020 COMMUNITY: WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER! How are our local grocers faring in this COVID mess? T his is a tough time. That is almost becoming the theme of the day, is it not? When we look out our window (because we’re all staying in) we don’t see anything. Things have come to a standstill in most of our neighborhoods and communities. Our focus is on staying home, staying safe, staying healthy, and staying fed. We wondered about the later, are the food stores in our community keeping up? There have been hard runs on food over the last couple of weeks as people anticipated shortages in coming days, and in their own special way, created the shortages they feared. We decided to give a call to the three main food chains in Lincoln - Aldi, IGA and Walmart to ask them how they were doing. Our first call went out to the Lincoln IGA where Office Manager Katie Newman spoke. Newman said that IGA is working hard to keep the shelves stocked and are putting product out on the shelves as soon as it comes it. The issue for the IGA is that there are shortages at the warehouse that serve the local grocer. Those warehouses don’t have the product in the quantities that IGA normally needs to keep the shelves stocked. The store is limiting certain, high demand items. Newman said among the items included on the ‘limited purchase’ list is milk and water. They are having difficulty getting toilet paper and paper towels, and are limiting purchases of those items when they have them in stock. She said the same was true for cleaning products such as Clorox disinfecting wipes. When in stock, shoppers are limited to how many they may buy. Newman said that because of the high demand for products, the decreased availability of product and the need to keep staff on the floor, they are unable to offer curbside pick- up of grocery orders. They have also had to temporarily suspend their delivery services to senior citizens for the same reason. Newman and the staff at IGA recognize that this is a trying time for everyone. She said that her message to the community is that “we love our customers, love our community, and we are doing all that we can to help our customers CONTINUED u