Ingles Markets, the Asheville-based grocery mainstay of Western North Carolina, sustained severe damage to its distribution center along the Swannanoa River and several supermarket locations when Tropical Storm Helene hit the mountains just over three weeks ago.
The severe damage to Ingles’ Black Mountain distribution center will have a long-term ripple effect across the region, impacting Western North Carolinians’ food security, diet quality, unemployment levels, consumer behavior, and the viability of the company itself.
Plus, Ingles locations in four Western NC communities remain closed: Spruce Pine, Morganton, Swannanoa and Newland. In some cases, these closures are creating new food deserts in a region that is difficult to traverse due to damaged roads and mountainous terrain.
What happened to Ingles?
In the week leading up to Helene, operations at Ingles had already begun to falter. Storm anxiety caused waves of bulk-buying, and customers across the region were met with empty shelves…