ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -- "We have plenty of turkey," two presidents of locally-owned supermarket chains told us, ahead of a Covid-restricted Thanksgiving week.
"Plan ahead," Dierbergs Markets CEO Greg Dierberg said. "We do have bath issue and paper towels. Those things are in stock today, but supplies aren't endless."
Schnuck Markets President Dave Peacock says his 112 locations are also ready.
"I was at ten stores between Friday and Saturday," he said. "We've increased inventories both at our warehouse and at our stores, and even recently started pushing a little bit more paper out."
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Stores across the country are taking steps to prevent people from emptying shelves. The nation's largest grocer, Kroger, which operates in the St. Louis area as Ruler Foods, has a two-each limit on some paper and cleaning items.
Dierberg said: "We do have purchase limits on some of our home goods like toilet paper or bath tissue, but we made a big effort to increase our stock levels on those, particularly on hand sanitizer and wipes. We are in great condition on a lot of those things."
GOBBLE GOBBLE
Both supermarkets promise Thanksgiving's main dish won't require a hunt.
"We have plenty of turkeys and some of the cheapest turkey prices in town," Schnucks' Peacock said. "We've got both small birds and large ones. Nothing like cooking a large turkey and having a *lot* of leftovers."
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Dierberg hopes you're feeling like turkey. He's upped their order of turkey breast by a ton. Like, by 2,000 pounds.
"We figured there might be more smaller gatherings; people not wanting to cook up a huge bird because they might not be having all their relatives over," he said. "We have plenty of turkeys, plenty of turkey breast. I'd be shocked if we didn't."
CLICK-AND-COLLECT
Schnucks recently announced expansion of its Curbside Pickup service to another ten locations in the metro area, for a total of 70 stores. Peacock told KMOX to expect another round of locations to roll out between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"We see our e-commerce business growing month after month," he said.
Schnucks partners with Instacart for its pickup and delivery.
Click-and-collect is now a major force in retail. Target in the third quarter reported a 500-percent increase in demand for its app-based "Drive Up" service.
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For in-person shoppers, 80 percent of Schnucks buildings are ready to queue customers outside again due to Covid-related restrictions.
"In many cases, we don't run into a capacity issue because our stores are so large," Peacock said. "With Thanksgiving coming we might at a few stores, but those will be very, very limited, we're hopeful."
Dierbergs is extending hours until 10 p.m. through Tuesday, November 24 and until midnight on Wednesday, November 25.
Both Schnucks and Dierbergs are closed on Thanksgiving Day.
If you're a fan of Dierbergs' prepared foods program, the cut-off for placing an order is the Saturday evening before Thanksgiving. There will be limited grab-and-go items available inside stores next week.
Dierbergs partners with Shipt for pickup and delivery, and the CEO warns to book early because time slots will start to get full soon.
Peacock suggests placing prepared foods orders with Schnucks by Sunday.
HELP WANTED NEEDED
Schnucks and Dierbergs are both hiring to meet the rush of demand.
Peacock says Schnucks is engaging with restaurants to accommodate workers displaced during St. Louis County's new round of mandated closures
Dierberg notes his company is offering a one-dollar-per-hour holiday bonus.
The executives spoke with KMOX's Michael Calhoun for Total Information AM.
Overall, "our shelves look real good," Peacock said. "We feel in good shape."
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