- April 15, 2024
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At Detwiler's Farm Market on University Parkway and Lockwood Ridge Road in Sarasota County, workers salvaged produce and other food by stuffing it into refrigerated trucks cooled by generators parked in back of the store in advance of Hurricane Irma.
The store, one of three owned and operated by the Detwiler family in the county, closed Friday at 8 p.m., and reopened Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 8 a.m.
To prepare for the storm, staff boarded up the 6100 N. Lockwood Ridge Road storefront, and employees and their families -- together with several Detwilers — rode out the hurricane inside, in a makeshift shelter. In all, more than 100 people shared the space inside the Parkway Collection Shopping Center.
When the store reopened, staff scrambled to restock shelves and move in new merchandise from its distribution center near the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.
By Tuesday mid-day, the store was back to a brisk business — fueled, perhaps in part, by steep discounts on produce and meat. Green peppers, for instance, were selling 10 for $1 Tuesday. Many customers cooled themselves by eating ice cream at picnic tables just inside the store's entrance.
“We have a lot of product we're pushing out today because we were closed for two days that we normally would have been open,” says Josh Detwiler, the store's produce manager.
“It's been a bit of a logistical nightmare, especially in trying to get fuel and arrange for trucks to come in,” he adds. “For instance right now, we're out of bananas. But we have a heck of a team here, they really came through, and our customers have been willing to work with us, so we're thankful.”
