Supermarket Loses Store Full of Goods in Power Outage

While many businesses in the area weathered last weekend's storm with full power, others did not fare so well.

When the , a neighborhood institution for nearly 60 years, lost power late Friday night, owners Kevin and Jason Kirsch moved the perishables to a refrigerated trailer parked at the store's loading dock. 

The trailer kept the groceries at a cool 35 degrees until yesterday afternoon, when they found that the temperature inside the trailer had risen to 62 degrees. The trailer's refrigeration system had conked out. 

The store remains closed until the power can be restored.

"Can you make a bad day worse?" mused Kevin Kirsch on Monday afternoon.

Not much is left inside the Chevy Chase Lake store. The frozen foods, the produce, the bakery items and even the salad dressings all are gone because even though the inside of the store is only in the high 60s, the Kirsches don't take chances with food safety.

"You don't fool around with that stuff. Food safety is our No. 1 priority," Kevin Kirsch said.

The supermarket's dedicated customers (its Facebook page has more than 6,500 fans), have not been silent in their concern for the Kirschs' family business.

"The only bright spot in this whole thing has been the numerous phone calls, emails, knocks on the door. Everybody coming by with their support. We can’t tell you how much that means to us. So we try to remember that," Kevin Kirsch said in the store's pre-recorded phone-answering message.

"You can’t put a value on that—that’s something really special," Kevin Kirsch told Patch.

"These wonderful brothers, Kevin and Jason Kirsch, have continued to give back to the community just as their late father, Walter, did. They offer office space and food to every working police and fire official each day. They are so beloved in the BCC community. We are trying to find a way to help them in their time of need," wrote local resident Madelaine Waltjen Shedlickin an email to Patch.

Kevin Kirsch will be in touch with the store's insurance company, but for now, he's still assessing the damage that the power outage has done to the business.

"As Pepco says so nicely, 'Once the power goes back on, we will assess the situation and see where we are,' " Kevin Kirsch said on the store's phone-answering service.

The power outage has not only affected the store's products. It's also affected the store's nearly 60 employees—if the store is closed, they can't all go to work as usual. And, the store's small-business suppliers can't sell their products to the store until it's back in business, Kevin Kirsch added.

Pepco officials have said that they hope to restore power to the Washington, DC, area by Friday.

How has your business been affected by power outages?