BUFFALO, N.Y. — As Western New Yorkers race to get those last-minute items ahead of what experts are calling “a storm of the generation” and the holiday, shoppers are flooding the grocery stores with lines spanning halfway down the aisles.
“You're trying to find cases of water,” Buffalo resident Yaireliv Santana said.
“There's no cases of water. There was no meat. I mean, it’s gonna be the end of the world.”
And while some shoppers may still be searching for certain items, Tops executives say they used last month’s Snowvember as a learning experience to ensure they were in a better position this time and stocked up on essentials like milk, eggs and bread ahead of this week’s rush.
“Knowing what we learned from Thanksgiving, we can make sure that the trucks that we normally would have come towards the end of the week, we back ordered those to make sure they came towards the beginning of the week. So those things are on shelves for everyone,” said Kathy Sautter, Public and Media Relations Manager at Tops.
But for those who are a little pickier and like to hold off to get the freshest ingredients for their Christmas dinner, experts say this year you just don’t have that luxury.
“We do have Instacart and those services available to people who may want to stay home and have delivery available to them as well if they find they're in a pinch, and they need something last minute,” Sautter said.
“But again, just making sure that if they want to get those essentials maybe come a little bit earlier before the storm hits.”