By and large, people only think about rock salt a few times a year. Then they think of it all at once.
Don’t have it. Need it. Big snowstorm coming.
That’s why a newly delivered pallet of 50-pound rock salt bags disappeared in an eyeblink from the Tractor Supply Co. store in Lower Nazareth Township on Friday morning. The only snow-clearing products on hand were small jugs of pet-safe ice melting pellets.
Same thing happened at Azar Supermarket in Bethlehem, where a couple of shopping carts loaded with eight bags of salt sat tantalizingly out of the reach of customers because they were reserved for treating the store parking lot.
The storm is shaping up to be a big one. As of Friday afternoon forecasters were calling for 12 to 18 inches of snow, beginning late Saturday or early Sunday morning and lasting into Monday.
It’s a potentially dangerous storm, certain to disrupt traffic and air travel. Bitter cold temperatures with lows in the single digits will make the chore of shoveling out all the more unpleasant, and power outages are always a possibility.
“All the big items are on order,” said an employee at Tractor Supply, where the phone rang without pause as the population of the greater Lehigh Valley called in search of supplies: snowblowers, propane, salt, shovels, flashlights.
Some of these things were available and others weren’t, but the 11th-hour rush underscored the lesson that for many of us, the slogan “be prepared” doesn’t survive our scouting years.
“We’re anticipating more [salt] but the demand is always higher than the supply,” said the employee, who asked his name not be used in keeping with store policy.
A customer named John, who has his own policy of keeping his name out of things — his full name, anyway — said he was ready for the storm but low on Duraflame firestarter logs.
He lives on a rural area and knows better than to be caught unprepared.
“I’ve got plenty of firewood, plenty of water,” he said. “I’ve got water to flush the toilet if I need it.”
In the parking lot, Sean McFillin of Nazareth put a couple of jugs of ice melt in the back of his car. He said he likes to keep the sidewalk in front of his house as clear as possible for dog-walkers heading to the nearby borough park.
Meanwhile, his wife was braving the eggs-and-milk crowds at a supermarket.
“We’re going to make Guinness Irish stew on Sunday,” he said. “It seems like a nice thing to do while we wait to see how much snow comes down.”
At Azar’s, Tatiana Elias, one of the managers, said 12 pallets of rock salt went quickly. She was busy restocking bread, one of the traditional go-fast items on the eve of a storm.
“I got my bread, I got my milk and I shoveled the old snow this morning to make space for the new snow,” said customer Zee Maddah.
He and his husband, Pat Romano, drove over from Palmer Township for a few items because other stores had already been pretty well ransacked, according to Romano.
“They started yesterday,” he said. “The Walmart was bald. All the bread and milk was gone.”
Romano said it’s nice to have bread and milk on hand during a storm, but he’s never been snowbound for very long.
“Generally in a big storm we’re out in 24 hours,” he said. “What’s big deal? You’re going to starve without a loaf of bread?”
Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or dsheehan@mcall.com