Strosniders Hardware in Bethesda normally opens at 7:30 a.m.
By that time Wednesday, customers looking for snow shovels and ice melt were already waiting at the door.
“We’re unloading the trucks and people are taking that stuff right off the shelves,” store manager Bill Hart said. “It’s pretty crazy.”
By 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, a few minutes after the National Weather Service (NWS) said a foot or more of snow and a blizzard is possible for Friday and Saturday, Strosniders also had sold a few power generators and snow blowers.
“Pretty much anything you can think of related to snow, we’ve sold today,” Hart said.
At Christopher’s Glen Echo Hardware on MacArthur Boulevard, the rush on snow supplies started Tuesday, according to store manager Russ Whitt.
“It’s been chaos,” Whitt said. “We have enough to get through today. Well, right now we have enough.”
The store is expecting a truck delivery of more snow shovels and ice melt Thursday.
There were about 25 snow shovels left Wednesday morning at Old Takoma Ace Hardware in Takoma Park. Store manager Eric Hardy said a big order of shovels is coming Friday, hopefully before the snow starts falling Friday afternoon or evening.
“We should be able to restock and be ready,” Hardy said.
The weather service issued a Blizzard Watch starting Friday afternoon for all of Montgomery County and much of the Washington, D.C., area.
Heavy snow and wind gusts of 40 mph are possible Friday night and the NWS said “travel is expected to be severely limited if not impossible” during the height of the storm, which is expected to end Sunday.
