As Cyclone Gabrielle moves down the country, we want to reassure everyone our supply chain and stores are in good shape and the preparation work we did last week is standing us in good stead.

Safety is our number one priority and as the weather looks set to ramp up, our teams are busy keeping our locally owned and operated stores across the North Island stocked with products for their communities. Delivery trucks all got to their destinations ahead of the storm and we have enough product on hand.

We’ve made some subtle changes to keep the groceries flowing from our distribution centres to our stores, like reducing the number of non-essential items being delivered to stores. This gives us more room on our trucks for the essentials.

So far today our stores are fairly quiet and depending on the weather, each local store’s opening and closing times may vary, so we recommend customers check their local store’s Facebook page or webpage before setting out to come in.

Bread, milk and bottled water are a few of the most important groceries to North Islanders right now. We’ve got good supplies of water, our in-store bakeries have been ramping up production to help keep up with bread demand - and some of our supply partners have also been changing their approaches to increase production.

We want to thank our incredible team at our distribution centres, our drivers, our owner operators and store teams, our suppliers and our foodbank, social supermarket and food rescue partners, for all they’re doing to make sure we get through Cyclone Gabrielle safely and with the supplies we all need.

Our stores are open but due to electricity outages, a handful of our Four Square stores are experiencing intermittent power issues. We have teams working to get any impacted stores back online as soon as we can.

If you’re coming in and the weather is bad where you are, please take care. We have enough stock, but sometimes our in-store teams aren’t able to replenish shelves fast enough from the storerooms in store. We’re asking customers to please only buy what you need for a few days, that way there’s enough for everyone when they shop.

Depending on what the weather brings to your area, your local store opening and closing times may vary, so please check their Facebook, or website page before you set out.

Our priority is always to keep our teams and customers safe - take care over the coming days.

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