• Home

Bread is scarce, milk dries up

DUBAI - Several groceries and small-size supermarkets in both Dubai and Sharjah have been hit by a sudden scarcity of perishable items like milk, bread and eggs, owing to heavy rains over the last two days.

With most of the supply vehicles not arrivingdue to the water clogged roads, the groceries complained they were facing shortage of essential commodities and that many customers had been turned back. Besides, skeletal staff attendance particularlyt delivery boys at the supermarkets in Dubai and Sharjah in the last two days has had many supermarkets face huge business losses as well, sources said.

An official of a supermarket at the King Faisal Road in Sharjah said, “We need fresh supplies of perishable items like milk, breads, eggs etc everyday. With heavy rains on Tuesday, none of the supply vehicles turned up. On Wednesday, we called them up in order to enquire and again got a negative answer. They said that since all the roads were full of water, the vehicles could not reach us. They have only promised fresh supplies by Thursday. The expiry dates of the existing items are over and we cannot sell them. Milk, breads etc are essential items which the customers need everyday. Since morning, we have refused more than 30 customers,” he said.

The officials of the Bilal Al Madina Supermarket in the Al Nahda area in Dubai also lamented the same. “There are no fresh supplies since two days now. With water covering all the streets, the vehicles have not turned up despite of several requests. We are expecting supplied only by Thursday. The customers are blaming us and we are trying to make them understand the problem. The rains have caused a lot of business damage,” he pointed out.

Another supermarket in Al Khan area in Sharjah said that apart from no fresh supply of goods for past two days, watewr logging outside the supermarket has affected our business significantly. Customers are unable to come to the outlet for other purchases due to knee deep water outside the supermarket, the manager complained. Besides, I had just one delivery boy who turned up to workonWednesdayaffecting our huge delivery supplies to homes in the vicinity.

The big supermarket chains however faced no major supply problems. “We offer a 24 hour service. So the supply vehicles can reach us at any time. We did not have to face this problem,” said a representative of Choithram’s in Dubai.

The different restaurants in Sharjah also said that problems were galore because of the lack of supply. “We did not have the supply of things like eggs, cheese, milk, fish and mutton etc. Though there were sufficient stocks with us for a few days, the absence of essential commodities posed a problem. The supply vehicles can reach us latest by Thursday,” said an official of the Mediterranean restaurant at Qanat Al Qasba in Sharjah.

• UAE