Grocery stores in Gary, Indiana, restocking after weeks without power

Power has been restored in Gary, Indiana, but the shortages are not over.

Grocery stores are restocking their meat, dairy and frozen foods after weeks without power.

Save More on Broadway was one of the last businesses to get its power back, with service restored Tuesday afternoon. Owners ordered a refrigerated trailer just hours after the lights went out, never expecting it'd be parked here for so long.

Though the power is back on, the grocery store is still running on empty.

"Even now you walk and you see these shelves. These shelves are never empty," said manager Admed Musleh. 

Full cases are bare. They discounted and gave away what dairy, meat, and frozen foods they could before pitching the spoiled items. Staff had to call suppliers to hold back their orders during the outages.

"People were like, 'Oh, still? Like, you're still aren't back to normal?' I think people expected the power to be out ... they didn't expect it to be out for two weeks," Musleh said.

The owners kept cash registers running during the outage with a generator, but sales were thin. Staff said customers would abandon their carts and leave after being told they were out of items such as meat and dairy. Now, people are filling up again.

Customers like Henry Broadnax are refilling his own refrigerator. He is planning a home-cooked meal after weeks of Uber Eats.

"I'm going to have pepper steak and rice today. I got a lot of stuff. A lot of things," he said.

The grocery lists are long, even if the options are in short supply.

"They'll get some more because every store is empty ... kinda sorta," said Deangela Dixon. 

After outages this long, restocking has become another shared struggle.

"As much as Save More struggles during these two weeks, the people that had to live in it, the people that were without power in their homes, that's like the real struggle," Musleh said.

The Save More staff estimates that the power outage cost more than $100,000 between the rental, wasted food and lost potential sales. 

The store expects to have everything restocked by Friday, though they're worried people are out of money after spending so much to make ends meet during the outages.