Speak Out: Grocery Store Shelves Picked Clean After Power Outages

As residents look to restock their refrigerators following countywide power outages, many found empty shelves at local grocery stores.

Restaurants weren’t the only businesses food items after knocked out the power to refrigerators and freezers in grocery stores across Montgomery County. 

Patch saw dozens of store workers cleaning and restocking empty shelves in Safeway and store locations on River and Falls roads in Potomac Monday morning. The stores were open for business, but had little in the way of frozen foods, ice, produce and other perishables.

some perishables were hard to come by as shoppers and stores restocked.

The in Potomac managed to ice down and save some of its stock, according to store owner Jeff Grolig, but other businesses weren’t so lucky.

In Chevy Chase, one . When the , a neighborhood grocer for nearly 60 years, lost power Friday night, owners Kevin and Jason Kirsch moved the perishables to a refrigerated trailer. On Sunday afternoon, the brothers realized the refrigeration system in the trailer had given out, raising the temperature to 62 degrees and forcing them to toss all the food.

What was your experience at the grocery stores following Friday’s derecho? Were you able to restock your refrigerator, or was the selection picked bare?