Donations the bright spot in blackoutcontinued from page 1 When much of southeastern Michigan and Lansing lost power
during August’s massive blackout, Michigan retailers stepped up to
the plate to help those in need. Walgreens, Meijer, Kmart, RiteAid and
Wal-Mart all donated much-needed water to the residents of the areas without
power. Many retailers showed community spirit in other ways as
well. Some storeowners in Detroit stayed open to sell food, drink and
supplies by candlelight, using calculators to ring up sales. Most Meijer
stores stayed open and had power, due to emergency generators, but one
remained closed because the company decided to loan that store’s
emergency generator to William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, according
to John Zimmerman, Meijer’s director of community relations. The electric power outage, which knocked out almost all
of Detroit Edison’s network and a portion of the Consumers Energy
network, also halted the pumps for the Detroit water system, making clean
drinking water a valuable commodity. Responding to a call from Governor Jennifer Granholm’s
office Friday morning, Michigan Retailers Association called some of its
major members to see how they might help. Later that day, Jennifer LeFevre
from the Governor’s Office called to thank the Association and its
members for all the assistance. “The Governor’s Office got a great response
from MRA members. They were fantastic, a huge help during a state crisis,”
said LeFevre. Several major retailers helped area residents with large
donations of water. The following list is likely just a fraction of the
total donations contributed by retailers. Another valuable commodity during the outage was gasoline.
The gasoline problem was not a matter of short supplies, but of access,
since stations were without power to pump the fuel out of their tanks.
Meijer trucked gasoline from western Michigan to southeast
Michigan, where it was sold from the truck directly to the consumer. Govenor
Granholm applauded the retailer for its willingness to assist in getting
gasoline to the area, as well as for its donation of water. Granholm also expressed gratitude to Kmart for agreeing
to reduce the use of nonessential electric signs at its stores and for
its donation of 50 pallets of bottled water. At least one Kmart store manager went the extra mile for
customers in the Ann Arbor area. According to WDIV-TV in Detroit, two
people on the staff of Heartland Health Care Center, a nursing home in
Ann Arbor, sought supplies for its elderly residents at a nearby Kmart
that was closed due to the lack of power. The store manager decided to open the store and allow
customers to buy necessities like water and flashlights on credit. The
grateful nursing home workers took away over $500 in supplies to help
its residents, and the Kmart manager took their names and accepted their
word that they would pay when the store reopened. Negative behavior involving stores was at a minimum. Consumers complained to the state Attorney General’s
office about alleged gas, water and ice gouging, but the initial review
shows that was not the case. Spokesperson Sage Eastman reported that “most
everything was within reasonable limits,” although an investigation
of price gouging continues. “If price gouging has happened, the events are isolated
incidents,” said Mike Sarafa, president of the Associated Food Dealers
of Michigan (AFD). AFD established a consumer hotline to report price
gouging (248.665.3013 ext. 1). Detroit Police reported 22 arrests related to theft and
looting during the power outage, according to the Detroit Free Press,
which also reported one incident of major looting at a Citgo gas station
and convenience store on Detroit’s East Side. For grocery stores, the major problem was the economic loss from spoiled food. Sarafa reports that as many as 50 percent in the Detroit area did not have insurance to cover losses from power outages. |