Local June 14, 2022 | 3:16 pm

Ice is scarce in establishments in the middle of heat wave

They attribute a shortage of ice in Santiago to the heat wave.

Santiago, DR
Ice has become scarce in Santiago establishments, such as supermarkets, gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies, and other places.

The merchants say that the distributor trucks have not passed by their businesses for four days to carry the product in great demand amid the suffocating heat.

Yesterday many people went to the stores in search of ice, but the refrigerators that keep the frozen bags are empty, according to merchants.

“I have visited more than ten establishments looking for ice to use in my cafeteria, and I can’t find it,” said small merchant Jorge Arias.

Meanwhile, the colmadero Rosendo Rosario declared that ice has not arrived since Friday while customer demand grows.

“We don’t know what’s going on, but the trucks aren’t going through,” he complained.

In Santiago, some businesses sell the bag of ice for 50 pesos, but others sell it for 60.

People give multiple ice uses, such as keeping juice, water, and alcoholic beverages at low temperatures, keeping meat products, sausages, soft drinks, and other products cold when energy is absent, among other uses.

However, while ice is scarce, selling water in bottles is normal.

Executives from water processors reported that they continue to make ice, but demand is increasing due to the heat.

They also explained that it is normal to do this in hot weather because people buy more ice.

Meanwhile, consumers said that, hopefully, it is not a strategy to increase their prices.

“We hope that the shortage is due to demand, because it is true that people buy more than normal,” emphasized a customer of the Martínez supermarket, on 16 de Agosto Street, in Santiago.

The concentration of dust particles from the Sahara desert increased during the past hours over the country, which kept the sky looking hazy and opaque throughout the national territory; in addition, these particles helped keep the thermal sensation quite hot, especially during the afternoon, according to the National Meteorological Office.

WEATHER
Occasional cloudy
Trough.

A trough will interact with the tropical wave for today and tomorrow. Therefore, occasional cloudy clouds are expected in the morning over sectors of the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments