Can You Believe They're Out of Salsa? Hurricane Preparedness Hits Whole Foods In NYC

My New York-based niece reported last night that the line at the Whole Foods in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood was 'epic.'

Hardly a surprise, I replied; who could imagine surviving a hurricane without fresh arugula, candied walnuts and organic wheat beer?

My cousin in New Jersey blogged hilariously (blog title;'Bordeaux at Bedtime')about what to do with the kids, a flooded basement, Stop-and-Shop being completely out of chocolate almond milk - to say nothing of the local pharmacies reporting a run on Xanax.

And what do my wondering eyes behold this morning? A report by Jamie Heller in the Wall Street Journal: New York meets a natural - as opposed to man-made - crisis and reacts with typical brio. As a native New Yorker now transplanted, with many relatives still in the metropolitan area, I can not help gently teasing friends and relatives. Over-the-top is the base case in NYC. But having survived more than a dozen hurricanes now, I am all too familiar with their frightening power - and the hassle of cleaning up the mess they leave in their wake while living without electricity for days.

Sounds romantic, but William Manchester's "A World Lit Only By Fire' was a good read, not a fun life. So stay safe you intrepid New Yorkers, forget about taking photos outside - and read up now on exciting recipes requiring canned tuna and stale bread. JL:

Whole Foods was pulling an all-nighter Friday. The giant supermarket in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan planned to stay open until 9 a.m. Saturday morning before closing its doors for the weekend.

Residents flocked to shop, and shelves laid bare in a store usually overflowing with a rainbow of produce and umpteen varieties of groceries. The black cloths normally hidden under strawberries, grapes and cherries were left exposed. At one point in the evening, the typical parking lot of shopping carts was empty, as each was in the arms of a customer. There was still plenty to purchase around 10 p.m. Friday, including milk and other dairy items that would perish in a power outage. And there were even some groceries. Rice cakes? Yes, in apple-cinnamon and other odd varieties. Salsa? How about peach-mango flavor.

“Can you believe they’re out of salsa?” one woman asked into her cellphone
“I can’t believe we’re out of salsa!” said Joshua Williams, the shift leader, when told about the comment. Williams said he’s been at the Tribeca location for more than two years and had never seen anything like what descended upon the store Friday, even at Christmas and Thanksgiving.

“Everybody hit us today,” he said.

Williams said the store decided to stay open all night and close in the morning after the mass-transit shutdown was announcement for Saturday afternoon. Employees, he said, were glad to help out and some also wanted to get in extra hours, given that they wouldn’t be working Sunday.

The shift manager had some reassuring news for customers who might think they’re too late to buy basics: Another delivery is expected in the very early hours of Saturday morning, which could have among other things water, bread and cereal, he said.

In any event, certain products still seemed in ample supply. Like the midnight moon goat cheese, at $22.99 a pound.