Woodbury, CT—Throughout the past year, Connecticut’s New Morning Market was still feeling the financial effects of the three major storms they faced last year. With Hurricane Sandy approaching, founder and owner John Pittari prepared by having all perishables items moved into his walk-in freezer.

The store is home to a large organic produce section, supplement and homeopathic department, and the Provender, a gourmet prepared foods counter. Luckily, the storm passed and New Morning Market still had power, but many members of the surrounding community were not so fortunate. Pittari kept a positive attitude and offered a warm store, free coffee and a place to charge electronic devices for their community.

With Sandy causing severe weather for two days, and nearly an additional two weeks without power, sales decreased due to the lack of people venturing from their homes. Also, because some distributors for New Morning Market are in Manhattan and New Jersey, some products were not able to reach the store for several days. Pittari felt that people were more prepared this time around, after learning from last year’s storms, but still, many families had to throw away perishable goods. Three weeks into November, Pittari was hoping that everything would finally return to normal, with power restored and the rush of Thanksgiving past.

While New Morning Market was equipped with a walk-in freezer and has the infrastructure to support a generator that can run the entire store, financially, they had not been able to purchase one yet. However, John feels that these storms are becoming “the norm,” and purchasing that generator will become a higher priority this year. WF

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Published in WholeFoods Magazine, January 2013 (online 11/26/12)