Stocked shelves in Shelby vary by day after Helene

SHELBY, N.C. ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — A walk down the aisles at one Shelby Ingles shows some shelves are fully stocked while others—not so much.

“We don’t have a lot of produce, milk, eggs, the basic necessities, really,” said customer Leslie Humphries. “Bread is scarce. I guess everybody’s kind of losing it.”

At one particular grocery store, we found items in short supply vary. In the produce section, lettuce is lacking. In the dairy section, yogurt was getting restocked, but eggs and milk were available.

Certain freezers for frozen foods were empty. For some reason, ice cream appeared to be the hot item.

“I’m the ice cream,” said customer Angie Barrett. “Myself and my Great Danes.”

Queen City News

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Ingles Markets posted a message to customers on Facebook October 2 saying they were devastated by catastrophic damage from Helene, adding, “Our hometown, Black Mountain, North Carolina, which houses our distribution center, was one of these areas. We had loss of power, critical infrastructure, transport vehicles, inventory, and yes, even loss of life. We were all severely impacted.”

Couple that with people from Western North Carolina driving east for supplies.

“More of the influx of people coming in from the mountains,” said Humphries. “I’ve met a lot of people from Lake Lure, Chimney Rock. It’s probably the influx of people coming from towards the mountains that we don’t have a lot of food.”

Shelby residents have gained perspective in the past two weeks.

“I just feel like these little things that I have to deal with are nothing in comparison to what they’re dealing with,” said Barrett.

People are trying to keep things light.

While some workers played rock, paper scissors for—who knows what daily task—others recognized a little empathy goes a long way.

“Understanding that we’re all dealing with situations that are causing more and more people to become scared of what’s going to happen next,” said Shelby resident Rose Pendleton. “So, the sympathy part is definitely needed for almost everybody that comes through.”

Since Ingles’ Facebook post on October 2, they have shared that they have donated towels, first aid kits and other items to a local church; they have hosted Samaritans Purse in their parking lot in Asheville; they’ve given away flavored water with added electrolytes at their store in Fletcher and shared other helpful information from an Ingles dietitian.

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