SPARTANBURG — As shoppers sought to restock their refrigerators or pick up more ice and bottled water amid ongoing power outages across the Upstate in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene, they met varied results.
A sign outside the Ingles store on East Main Street in Spartanburg on Sept. 30 states "Store Closed Sorry."
Several stores remained closed Sept. 30, including Ingles on East Main Street. The store posted a sign in the parking lot reading "Store Closed Sorry." Some stores, like the Food Lion in Clinton, had reopened but had no frozen or refrigerated goods as they had spoiled during the nearly three days without power, with barren and blocked-off aisles greeting customers.
Meanwhile, parking lots at Walmart and Publix on Spartanburg's east side were nearly full as shoppers flocked to the open groceries to stock up in Helene's wake.
Facebook group All Things Greenville! (SC) and other Upstate community groups across social media platforms had users posting real-time updates about which stores were open and whether they had cold items or quintessential grocery buys like bread and water.
Freezers were bare and blocked off for customers Sept. 30 at the Food Lion in Clinton. The store's frozen and refrigerated goods had spoiled during nearly three days without power.
South Carolina still has more than 600,000 people without power Sept. 30, mostly in the Upstate. Work crews from Duke Energy and other agencies were busy replacing power poles and lines throughout the region, including on Highway 176 late Sept. 30.
During outages, convenience stores served as a lifeline to shoppers, even as a spike in demand and powerless pumps created fears of a gas shortage in the Upstate.
Several Breaker's convenience stores on Howard Street in Spartanburg have remained open by using generators to keep them powered. The Highway 150 store in Goucher in Cherokee County reopened shortly after the storm with power returning to its gas pumps early Sept. 30.
Customers at the Highway 150 store stocked up on vehicle adaptors to charge their cellphones during the power outages.
Walmart on East Main Street in Spartanburg has reopened after the storm. It's among several Upstate locations the retail behemoth reopened following Helene.
"The storm was much bigger than we anticipated and had a broader geographical impact," Walmart Director of Disaster Preparedness Brooks Nelson told The Post and Courier. "All of our stores have bounced back pretty well."
Nelson said water and other supplies were donated to the Spartanburg County Office of Emergency Services. He said the needs throughout the Upstate are similar. In the coming days, Nelson said Walmart will deploy mobile units to its stores' parking lots to hand out water.
"We will deploy those units across the impacted area in Spartanburg and Greenville," he said. "There was a lot more wind damage and power outages in those markets. It created a lot of debris."
Ingles, which is headquartered in Helene-battered Western North Carolina, did not immediately return a request for comment Sept. 30. The grocery chain said on social media that its distribution center in storm-battered Swannanoa, N.C. is closed — one resident told The Washington Post that the town was "completely and entirely erased” by flooding — and its store closures dotted the area.
The company said it was working to "regain normal operations and delivery to stores amidst unprecedented flooding and the loss of road and transportation infrastructure."
"We are your neighbors," the post said. "We are grateful to all of you who are already helping your communities. We thank every customer for their patience and understanding."