SEATTLE — A Seattle hardware story is nervously eyeing the forecast – with an outside shot at another significant lowland snow event on the way.
Markus Janke, of Hero Ace Hardware in downtown Seattle, said the store has one pallet of sidewalk salt in the back room right now.
“We were planning on sending some of this back because we weren’t sure this would go with the weather lately,” he said.
But now the store plans on keeping it. During the last round of lowland snow, customers rushed in looking for salt and shovels – it was impossible to keep either in stock.
During the last storm, Janke and some other employees drove a rented truck to Yakima on a desperate run for more salt.
Also see | Timeline of western Washington snowstorm
“We literally went with a 20-foot truck, picked up the ice melt, and drove it back through the pass, which was insane,” Janke said.
“One guy came and got 1,500 pounds himself with his SUV,” he added. “It was crazy, loading it up and watching it drop down.”
Janke said they sold 70 snow shovels in less than 45 minutes during the last storm. So far, the warehouse has not been able to restock them.
It’s why he’s worried another significant snowfall could mean a rush on these same depleted materials. So, he used a calm evening Friday – to get the store ready.
“It’s incredibly worrisome to know this might be happening again, and how little we have, and how little we have left,” Janke said.
He said it’s possible they might see more materials come in on Tuesday.