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'Frantic' Shopping, Long Lines As New Yorkers Prepare For Blizzard

By Irene Plagianos | January 26, 2015 1:20pm
 New Yorkers headed out to prepare for the first major snow storm of the year, Jan. 26, 2015.
Preparing for the 2015 Blizzard
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NEW YORK CITY — With a historic blizzard barreling our way, frenzied storm preparations were well underway across the city.

Long lines snaked around snow-covered blocks as New Yorkers swarmed supermarkets and hardware stores, trying to stock up on staples from milk to flashlights Monday morning ahead of the 2-foot snow dump.

“Everybody seems really frantic, like something really, really bad is going to happen,” said Dalia Flanagan, 33, as she loaded up a cart full of groceries at the bustling Fairway in Red Hook. “It’s dead normally [on Mondays].”

At Whole Foods in Union Square, eggs were almost completely gone by 10 a.m.

At the packed Park Slope Food Co-Op, some shoppers were stocking up on hearty ingredients for long-lasting stews to take them through the blustery next few days.

At the West Village’s Morton Williams, bread and meat were nearly cleared out by 11 a.m., but some shoppers were buying up what they said was a more important blizzard essential: alcohol.

“Beer’s the main staple,” said Barret Zion Gross, 52, as he carried three cases of beer back to his West Village home.

Along with food and drinks — shovels, batteries and flashlights were the other hot-ticket blizzard wares New Yorkers were going crazy for this morning.

Paul Brickman, the owner of the East Village’s H Brickman & Sons hardware store said shovels were “flying off the shelves,” and they only had one more bag of snow-melting rock salt left.

California transplant, Ruth Freeman, 45, who now lives in the East Village, was in the hardware store buying a flashlight, and said that she was “excited” for her first blizzard.

But it wasn’t all frenzied shopping, many New Yorkers said they were looking forward to being huddled up at home for the snow — or enjoying the weather outside.

SoHo resident Rich Cole said he just bought his first snow bike in anticipation of this blizzard, and was hoping to take it out to Central Park and Prospect Park. He also hoped to ride around on some desolate, snow-covered city streets. "Maybe an avenue here and there,"  he said. "Won't be too many cars in the streets."

Staten Islanders seemed to do their stocking up on Sunday and most markets had full shelves and relatively few shoppers.

Jennifer Vann, of Richmond Town, said she just went to Costco in New Springville to pick up supplies for her son’s birthday party on Friday, and also stocked up on water while there.

"I didn’t want to not have anything," she said.

She said she was worried about the storm, especially because her neighborhood loses power, and made sure to get everything setup before it hits.