By Venita Fritz

Tribune-Courier General Manager

vfritz@tribunecourier.com

DRAFFENVILLE– Greg Smith, Owner of Rodney’s IGA, says it’s a case of bad luck, not an impending closure that is resulting in bare shelves in his grocery.

Smith’s entire refrigeration system went down over the weekend of November 19 and 20, leaving him unable to stock anything requiring cold storage. He said after he learned that repairing it could take some time, he cancelled all delivery trucks to the store, as uncertainty left him fearful of restocking. As the shelves became bare, the rumors of the store’s closure began to fly in the community.

But Smith said he has no plans to close and that all his efforts now are directed to getting the store back up and running.

“We brought half of it back up and thought we had it fixed, but now we have Freon leaks and I still have cases that are down. We had the same thing happen after the ice storm. When these things go down, it can be tricky to get them back up,” he said.

Rodney’s remains open and refrigeration in the meat coolers has been restored, along with the dairy cases. Smith is still uncertain as to when the entire system will be operational, though he is hopeful to be operating at full capacity by early next week.

The timing for the unit’s failure couldn’t have been worse for Smith. The week leading up to Thanksgiving is generally considered the busiest week of the year for the grocery business.