Grocery provider shifts for rural county stores

During this worldwide pandemic, grocery stores all over the county are finding its shelves bare as customer frequency has increased and the amount that people are buying has increased.

Many local grocery stores are not only having to battle with the shopping influx but are also working through a new food distribution service.

URM Stores Inc. is a grocery distribution service based out of Spokane. URM services much of Whitman County.

While pressure is high on supply chains during this time of increased shopping URM has had to shift its focus on who they serve. This has left many Whitman County grocery stores relying on a new provider.

“I talked with URM and they said that they had arranged for a different distributor company to take over deliveries to the local small-town non-member stores that URM could no longer service,” said Whitman County Commissioner Art Swannack.

Swannack said he emphasized to URM that they needed to make sure the new supplier was delivering successfully so the stores weren’t left without deliveries of groceries and if there were problems URM would need to act as backup.

“Consumers are actively buying products in excessive amounts and that is putting a massive strain on the food supply nationwide,” said URM Vice President Rick Jensen. “The community stores are requiring four to five times their normal supplies to satisfy the demand of buyers preparing for a crisis. The logistics involved in providing this level of demand on our critical food supply from manufactures into our distribution center then back out to consumers has put extraordinary pressure on the food system.”

Jensen said this pressure had driven URM to make some critical decisions during this time. He said that as a company their decisions are not made based on profit, but their duty to effectively manage the demand of the critical food supply to the communities they serve.

He said they began transferring portions of their business to be serviced by another distributor on an interim basis.

“That new supply chain relationship began delivering groceries to Whitman County Wednesday, March 25, and will continue to until the crisis passes,” Jensen said.

Many grocery stores in the county, like Webb’s Empire Foods in St. John, are having shoppers call their grocery order in and orders are available for pick-up outside the store. This is promoting social distancing as well as preparing people to plan ahead for what they might need.

“In an effort to minimize contact and promote wellness for our community and ourselves, we have shut off the entry into the store,” said Webb’s Empire Foods in a Facebook post on April 3. “Keeping in mind that we are under full operation, however, due to an overall supply shortage, there are few items that may have purchasing limits on them.”

Swannack said he has checked in with smaller town grocery stores, that usually have URM as a provider, to see if they have had any issues and to let him know of any problems. He said he hasn’t heard any complaints from the stores he has checked in on.

“I am assuming that the new supplier delivered as promised,” Swannack said.

Amanda Viebrock, owner of Palouse Family Foods, said they are still receiving regular deliveries from URM.

“We have been shorted on a few items but will soon see those start to trickle back in as supplies become more readily available,” Viebrock said. “Store hours continue to be as usual and we are taking every precaution possible.”