January 9, 2014
The last minute “bums rush” befell desperate Howard Beach food shoppers, just hours before the first snowflake fell last Thursday, leaving them disgruntled and muttering under their breath, shaking their heads with disgust.
Customers at Waldbaum’s on Cross Bay Boulevard, visibly upset as they, one after the other, returned from a futile trip to the dairy aisle in search of milk, could easily be overheard, all through the store. Talking to any store personnel that would listen–the cashiers, the butcher, the people in the deli – any employee that might have clue. “Is there any milk in the back? “What time will the truck be in?” “What do you mean you missed the delivery?
And then, while standing on what seemed to them an endless checkout line, a group of shoppers combined bits and pieces of information and collectively shared their dismay over how the area’s only supermarket could possibly be out of milk hours before the storm even started.
“They knew about this storm on Monday,” said shopper Angela Martinello, “they should have ordered much extra. It’s not like milk goes bad overnight.”
And to compound the inability of the store to arrange for a delivery, they missed the regular Wednesday delivery the day before because of the holiday.
“It happens every time there’s weather,” said 26-year-old Charles Jackson, from the self serve line. “I will just go to Ragtime from here. They will have milk. But what about the people who can’t get there. The older people. You know that’s just not fair for them.”
One employee who spoke off the record explained that the store had tried to get milk, saying “Somebody called the dairy for milk delivery today. The guy who answered the phone is still laughing.”
By Patricia Adams
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