Southeast Missouri stores bracing for possible meat shortages because of coronavirus

Grocery shoppers in the meat section of their local supermarket may find ground beef, in particular, a bit harder to come by as early as this weekend.

“We have plenty of product on hand at the moment,” said Kevin Groves, manager of Country Mart in Jackson, who acknowledged reports of the closing of meat processing plants have him concerned.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday declaring such plants “critical infrastructure,” an effort to forestall predicted shortages of ground beef, pork and chicken due to the coronavirus.

Tyson Foods, one of America’s largest meat processors, recently warned retailers of supply chain disruptions because of a rash of industry shutdowns.

The New York Times reported 13 meatpacking and food processing plants have closed in the past two months as a growing number of production workers tested positive for COVID-19.

“A shortage, if it comes, will hit our ground beef supply first,” said Groves, “because you can make so much with it, spaghetti and lasagna, for example.”

“This is a fluid situation which we are constantly monitoring,” said Schnucks’ St. Louis spokesman Paul Simon.

“We’re taking (a possible shortage) very seriously, and we ask our customers to refrain from overbuying,” he added.

Pandemic-inspired hoarding caused toilet paper and paper towels to be in short supply since mid-March, but paper inventories are rebounding with shelves beginning to be stocked again.

“In a (meat) shortage, we’ll do what we did before,” said Simon, referring to a two-packages-per-person limit Schnucks briefly placed on ground beef in late March.

Country Mart was forced into a similar restriction last month.

“Some folks tried to buy 10 to 12 packages (of meat) at a time to put in their freezer,” said Groves, who has managed the Jackson store for 15 years.

Arkansas-based Harps is about to take ownership of 20 Country Mart locations in Missouri, including Jackson, Marble Hill, Dexter, Doniphan, Bernie and Poplar Bluff.

“We’re closing May 12 for inventory,” said Groves, “and we’ll reopen the next day as Harps.”

Cape Girardeau’s Schnucks location opened just before Thanksgiving 1976 and there are 71 company stores in Missouri.

In all, Schnucks has 112 supermarkets in a five-state area, which also includes Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.

In the wake of Gov. Mike Parson’s decision to lift the stay-at-home order effective May 4, Simon said Schnucks’ employees will continue to take rigorous safety precautions indefinitely.

“Every store worker wears a company-provided mask when they arrive for work,” said Simon, noting forehead temperatures are also taken as employees clock in for their shifts.

“We’ll continue to follow this protocol so long as the virus is a threat,” he said.