Despite The Icy Roads, Nashville Drivers Are Heading To Grocery Stores

The slick roads Tuesday meant that Nashville drivers couldn’t be in much of a hurry. And at some grocery stores, Nashville shoppers couldn’t either.

Around noon on Tuesday, the parking lot of the Kroger on Rosa Parks was full of cars and slush. Shannon Himes, who lives around the corner, was waiting outside the entrance with her dog as her husband Scott picked up groceries. But he came out empty handed.

“There’s, like, 50 people in that line. It’s crazy,” he said, shaking his head. “There’s no bread left, hardly. I didn’t walk by the milk but I’m sure there’s no milk left either.”

David Lose, who works across Rosa Parks from Germantown, said the long lines changed his plans, too.

“I just came for an apple for lunch,” he said, “and I put the apple back, and I’m leaving.”

But Louise Frierson and her daughter Leslie were coming in undeterred — even after being warned of the possible wait. They were looking for bottled water and salt. Louise said the latter was especially necessary to to keep their front sidewalk free of ice, especially as it gets colder later this week.

Long (Virtual) Lines For Rides, Too

For Nashville residents who had to get somewhere today — but didn’t feel comfortable driving themselves — they faced competition for a ride.

People seeking a ride with Allied Cab were greeted with this automated message: “Due to severe weather conditions, we don’t have many taxis to service you. We currently have long wait times for taxis.”

Ridesharing services faced a similar predicament. Joshua Stump, a cigar shop owner and part-time Lyft driver, was picking up passengers in a Toyota SUV this morning. He said there were only a few other Lyft drivers out — because they weren’t comfortable driving either, he suspected — and he was seeing near-constant demand.

“There isn’t a whole lot of time in between dropping someone off and getting another request,” he said.

Neither Lyft nor Uber would give specific numbers about the number of requests they had, but both increased their prices to encourage more of their drivers to take to the road.