Cold Weather Hobbles Auto Makers, Texas' Restaurants and Grocers -- Update
February 18 2021 - 6:21PM
Dow Jones News
By Heather Haddon and Jaewon Kang
Power outages and supply problems tied to the frigid weather in
Texas and surrounding states are constraining operations at
restaurants and supermarkets throughout the region and with auto
makers' nationwide.
Some residents say they have waited in long lines at grocery
stores and gas stations. Bottled water is hard to find and frozen
food at some stores without power has spoiled. Over 400,000
customers in Texas still had no power and millions of residents
were under a boil-water notice on Thursday as another winter storm
pounded covered much of the U.S. with snow, freezing rain and
extreme cold.
H-E-B LP, a Texas supermarket chain, said it has shortened store
hours and cut back on nonessential power usage, such as for
lighting. The company placed purchase limits on some items,
including water and propane tanks. Aldi Inc., another grocery
chain, said Thursday that it reopened a Texas distribution center
closed earlier in the week as snow and frigid temperatures
descended across the southern U.S.
Meanwhile, General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. each said they
were cutting output at U.S. factories that produce some of their
most profitable vehicles.
GM canceled work shifts in Arlington, Texas, where it makes big
SUVs, and at its Silao, Mexico, factory, which produces Chevrolet
and GMC pickups. Those vehicles already are in short supply and are
GM's biggest moneymakers. Production also has been disrupted at GM
factories in Tennessee and Kentucky.
Ford canceled at least one work shift at its pickup-truck
factories in suburban Detroit, where it makes the F-150 pickup, and
in Louisville, Ky., where it manufactures the Super Duty pickup.
Ford's other F-150 factory, outside of Kansas City, Mo., has been
idled all week to save natural gas used to heat homes and is
expected to resume operations Monday.
Ford's Mustang plant near Detroit and a factory in Hermosillo,
Mexico, also canceled shifts Thursday.
Many restaurants in the Texas region had stocked up for
Valentine's Day and Fat Tuesday, only to see reservations vanish as
temperatures plummeted. Reservations at Texas restaurants this week
were at the lowest levels since last May, according to online
booking site OpenTable.
Jack Gilmore said he closed the six Austin restaurants he
co-owns on Saturday night due to the coming storm. He said that
Valentine's Day is typically his third-busiest night of the year;
his Jack Allen's Kitchen and Salt Traders Coastal Cooking
restaurants were stocked with enough food for days of strong sales.
He said some employees have asked if they can take milk home from
restaurant coolers because they can't find it at grocery
stores.
Mr. Gilmore estimated he has lost hundreds of thousands of
dollars in sales from the storms. Reopening will take more than
restoring power because suppliers to his farm-to-table restaurants
have been hurt by the cold weather, too, he said. Seafood supplies
have been disrupted, he said, and the storm wiped out the state's
citrus crop during its growing season.
"It's going to be a lot easier to unlock the door than getting
product in," he said.
Jason Morgan, owner of Texas-based chains bellagreen and
Original ChopShop, said produce, beef, chicken and shrimp spoiled
at some of his 22 restaurants while they remained closed for much
of this week. He said he worries that insurance won't cover losses
related to the bad weather if his stores weren't physically
damaged.
"It doesn't matter if streets are impassable and employees can't
get to work," he said.
The Texas Restaurant Association is connecting restaurants
holding surplus food with hospitals in need, said Anna Tauzin, the
trade group's chief revenue and innovation officer. Distributors
including Houston-based Sysco Corp., US Foods Holding Corp. and
Gordon Food Services Inc. said they were focusing on deliveries to
hospitals over restaurants.
Jagtar Nijjar, Gordon's director of imports and commodities,
said the Wyoming, Mich.-based distributor was also rerouting
products bound for Texas to other regions because of road closures.
He said many of the company's drivers in the area aren't used to
icy highways and frigid temperatures, and that some trucks became
stranded.
"It's going to take the weather turnaround before we see things
get back to normal," he said.
Production has also been disrupted at some poultry plants in the
region where Gordon picks up meat, said Mr. Nijjar. Meat companies
including Pilgrim's Pride Corp. said this week they had temporarily
suspended some operations.
--Mike Colias contributed to this article.
Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com and Jaewon
Kang at jaewon.kang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 18, 2021 18:06 ET (23:06 GMT)
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