Market Profile: Piggly Wiggly Keeping Pace With Pandemic Challenges, Changes

James Messer knows the grocery business. The Lenoir, North Carolina, native has spent the past 45 years in the industry.

Now president of Piggly Wiggly North Carolina LLC, he oversees 38 stores in the eastern part of the state. Without doubt the period since early March, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, has been the most challenging.

Messer has spent much of his time the last seven months addressing supply chain issues. Keeping the shelves stocked in the 38 stores has been an ongoing headwind. Demand has been greater than many manufacturers can meet, resulting in ongoing shortages.

Messer likened the daily search for products to a 1993 movie starring Bill Murray, whose character is caught in a time loop, repeating Feb. 2 every day.

“From the day it started until today, I tell people it’s like ‘Groundhog Day’ every day, you do the same thing over and over,” Messer told The Shelby Report. “We are continually hunting for products. 

“I had at least 16 Zoom meetings several weeks ago with all the major manufacturers, from Kraft to Clorox to Campbell’s. Every single one of them told me the same thing over and over – that they do not see this going away until the end of 2021 at the earliest.”

The list goes on and on. Clorox wipes won’t be back in stock until late 2021. Many varieties of Campbell’s soup are out. Early on, procuring produce and meat were issues. Messer secured meat through restaurant suppliers, who were looking for new customers when the eateries closed. That enabled stores to keep up with demand.