Hurricane Sandy Keeps Sewickley Stores Busy

Hurricane Sandy isn’t just affecting the weather.

Leu Safran, owner of Safran’s Supermarket, said she’s also affecting business.

“Governor (Tom) Corbett has closed the roads, so we’re not getting merchandise delivered tomorrow,” Safran said.

Although Safran was notified Monday the store's delivery truck wouldn’t be arriving, there was plenty on the shelves Monday for customers, who stocked up on everything from comfort foods like potato chips and doughnuts to essentials such as water, meat and milk.

“We’re busy,” Safran said. “Milk is selling very well, meats, water, we’re selling it.”

Over at Robinson’s Home and Garden, Manager Bryan Robinson said the Village hardware store was also busy, something the store is used to happening during the winter months.

“When a snowstorm is pending, we have a run on things like this too,” Robinson said.

Robinson said the store was selling lots of pet food, batteries, candles and other essentials.

“The hottest item for us today was flashlights, batteries, battery-operated lanterns,” he said.

Robinson said the store sold out quickly on large battery-operated lanterns, which he described as old-fashioned gas lanterns with batteries. He said the store is still carrying similar, smaller-sized lamps.

"We still have some small ones," he said.

Robinson's will reopen Tuesday for normal business hours. Regular hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday.

Safran’s plans to remain open for normal business hours as well, unless there is a power outage. The store closes at 9 p.m. Monday and reopens at 8 a.m. Store hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 4 p.m. on Sundays.

"We’re staying open until 9 p.m. just like we always do," Safran's said. "We still have lots of milk in the store. Milk is still coming tomorrow because it's coming more local, not long distance."

Safran said his thoughts and prayers are also with those truly affected by the storm. “Everybody is talking about the storm and hopefully," he said, "we’re praying, it doesn’t get as bad as they’re saying it is. On the East Coast, those are the ones we should really be concerned about.”

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