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Wichita Residents Stock Up In Preparation For Winter Storm

Carla Eckels

While some businesses closed early due to the weather or low customer traffic, others were hopping--like pizza places and other delivery joints.

And, merchandise was flying off the shelves at local hardware stores.

Brian Sollo pulled one of the remaining black shovels off the rack at Williams Ace Hardware store in east Wichita yesterday.

"My driveway is full of snow and I don't have a shovel so I figured I'd come get one," Sollo said.

Credit Carla Eckels
Brian Sollo buys shovel at a hardware store in east Wichita.

Manager Bruce Anderson says the store has been quite busy lately...with a lot of demand for shovels, ice melt, kerosene, propane, and oil for oil lamps.

"Yesterday morning we probably sold 5000 pounds of ice melt in two hours," Anderson said. "Later in the day we received 400 more shaker bottles, 12-pound shaker bottles, and we sold those in about two hours.  We probably sold in the neighborhood of 600 shovels in the past 24-hours."

Anderson says more shovels are being delivered to the store, to help handle the snow we've already received, and any more we may get.

Carla Eckels is Director of Organizational Culture at KMUW. She produces and hosts the R&B and gospel show Soulsations and brings stories of race and culture to The Range with the monthly segment In the Mix. Carla was inducted into The Kansas African American Museum's Trailblazers Hall of Fame in 2020 for her work in broadcast/journalism.