Surge of shoppers stocks up at Stew Leonard's ahead of storm

There was no calm before the storm at Stew Leonard's in Norwalk. Instead, a surge of shoppers crowded the grocery store Friday ahead of the incoming nor'easter.
"Crazy. You had to bob and weave throughout the whole store," said Kelly Bellantoni, of Norwalk.
"I think everybody's trying to stay ahead of the game and get all their food and stuff stocked up," said Shelia L. Payne, of Stamford.
"There was actually a traffic jam over by the berries and like trying to get the carrots," Carolyn Hill-Bjerke, of Weston, told News 12. "So, you just have to steer very carefully, which I'm not always really good at doing."
The store brought in extra staff to handle the customer increase and keep shelves full.
Les Slater, the vice president of the store, said Stew Leonard's has been able to avoid most of the shortages from supply chain issues. "We're in great shape on everything. The milk, the bread that everyone wants--we're going to have plenty of it," Slater said.
Along with those staples, the store had plenty of non-food storm essentials such as shovels, snow brushes, ice melt and Duraflame logs.
"I was just glad that they had salt still. I was worried I'd be searching all over town for it," said Todd Parkin, of Norwalk
Other shoppers had a different game plan on arrival—chips, dips and wings.
"We have the double hit of the playoffs on Sunday," said Slater. "For this week, we'll probably do well over 20% of our business today."