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Mooresville-based Lowe’s Inc. is preparing to truck in extra supplies to areas hit by Hurricane Sandy, as the home improvement retailer tracks the storm’s progress from its emergency centers in North Carolina.
Terry Johnson, Lowe’s senior vice president of store operations, said demand for emergency items such as generators, flashlights, batteries, lumber and water has been extremely high in the days leading up to the storm.
“We saw it picking up as early as Tuesday,” said Johnson. “We started deploying the product there.”
Lowe’s is closing 51 of its 1,745 stores Monday afternoon, but plans to reopen all of them by Tuesday morning.
The retailer’s emergency operations centers are located in Mooresville and Wilkesboro, and they’ll be running around the clock during the storm, Johnson said. Once the weather clears, Lowe’s will be sending trucks in with “emergency loads” of needed supplies to sell in its stores.
“We will be quickly deploying products to the stores,” said Johnson. “Field teams based in the market will be assessing those needs.”
Matthews-based Harris Teeter has also prepared for the storm by staging mobile generators along its delivery routes, and delivering additional goods to stores in the mid-Atlantic. The company has closed three of its stores in Delaware until further notice.
