Shelves at grocery stores throughout southern Colorado are appearing emptier than usual right now because of supply chain issues. The leaders with Save A Lot in Colorado Springs say they have learned a lot since the beginning of 2020 about how to pivot in a new direction when supplies run low.
Two of their biggest challenges they say have been trying to overstock on popular items and build new relationships with suppliers to ensure they stay in stock.
"Sometimes we don't have a lot of alternative supply on things, so that was an area where we got some challenges coming out of the manufacturing processing and things, and so then we had to go and start new relationships with people to supplement some of those and the customers wouldn't experience a gap," said Gabe Disbrow, the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer.
Overall, they feel confident in the work they have done to keep items on their shelves for their customers.
"We've been pleasantly surprised with the positive response from the community and the customer base in recognition of the efforts that the sourcing teams and the source staff and everybody's doing to make sure that we stay in stock as much as possible," Disbrow said.
The company says they are also paying close attention to new COVID-19 variants that may negatively impact the supply chain moving forward.
