CLEVELAND — Turney’s Ace Hardware General Manager Doug Levin has stacked bags of salt outside ahead of time.
“We get several hundred bags in advance of the winter so our customers are ready to go,” Levin said.
Levin said the cost is higher this year, whether it’s the big bags outside or the smaller jugs inside. He said the cost for snow salt bags is up by about 11% compared to last year. He said the amount people buy depends on the amount of snow we get this winter.
“The cost is up a little bit,” Levin said. “I don’t think it’s significant and not necessarily an item people buy in huge quantity unless we have a bad winter.”
The store also already has its snow blowers in stock. Levin said they can sell quickly. Levin said people probably shouldn’t wait until the day of a storm, or until the winter weather hits its peak.
“Come January or February, snowblowers could be harder to get,” Levin said. “We don’t really know what the salt supply is gonna look like in any given year because we don’t know what the snowfall is gonna be like.”
Shovels of all kinds are fully stocked. Levin said prices haven’t budged much on these.
“The only real supply issue is that stores will stop ordering them pretty shortly after the new year because they don’t wanna carry them over,” Levin said. “And that’s when we get a lot of our snowfall is January and February, but stores will stop ordering them at some point.”
Levin said regardless of the price, a customer will buy them if they need them.
