Hannaford crew perseveres through pre-holiday pipe burst

   CARIBOU, Maine — There’s never a good day for a supermarket’s refrigeration to break, but the day before Thanksgiving is particularly bad timing.
Around 3 or 4 a.m. last Wednesday, Hannaford Supermarkets on High Street, formerly Paradis Shop ‘n Save, store officials were alerted to a ruptured pipe in their refrigeration unit.
“The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it’s one of the most disastrous things that could happen,” described Dana Corbin, store manager at Hannaford Supermarkets in Caribou.
Despite the catastrophic refrigeration loss, store employees went above and beyond to help rectify the problem while the refrigeration unit was repaired.
“The staff did awesome,” Corbin emphasized.
The Hannaford crew worked as a team to clean up the food, which was unsafe to sell due to the lack of refrigeration. Corbin said the staff worked as a team on the clean-up efforts, blocking off the food so that customers couldn’t accidentally purchase it and removing all the items to re-stock the shelves with available items.
Coincidentally, the store was slated for a shipment that day and was able to keep new products safely refrigerated in the truck until the shelves were ready to be stocked.
By Friday morning, Corbin said the store was completely back in shape.
“We did lose some pre-Thanksgiving sales, but we still did all right considering what we were up against,” he said.
Of all the things Corbin was thankful for on Thanksgiving, understanding customers was one of them.
“I really appreciate all the customers’ patience … a lot of them felt bad for us,” Corbin added.