Generators, Flashlights and Batteries, Oh My!

Walking into on La Grange Road on Wednesday, the shelves were fully stocked with power outage essentials, including heavy duty flashlights and rows upon rows of batteries.

But generators? Well, that's a different story.

"That's about the 30th request for generators I've gotten today," said store employee Larry Jandris.

Jandris said that customers had been requesting generators and telling him that Home Depot and Menards were both already sold out.

"You could try Otto Brothers," Jandris suggested.

Otto Brothers, 7837 Ogden Ave. in Lyons, did indeed have generators for sale they said—and they have been selling a lot of them.

"This is the best deal in town," said Bill, who declined to give his last name after I told him it would be in the paper. "We've been selling tons of them."

According to Bill, generators powerful enough for a home or small commercial business generally start at about $1,600 at Otto Brothers. However, due to the high demand, the store was putting on a special clearance sale and selling them for about $1,200, he said.

"A whole heck-of-a-lot of them have been walking out the door," he said. "We had to order more in today."

Bill said a typical generator generally holds about two gallons of gas and will power a home for about eight hours.

similarly reported an increased demand in supplies. In particular, store employees said that batteries and flashlights were in high demand, due to the large number of La Grange Park residents who were without power on Wednesday. 

Though they said they don't normally stock generators, they were planning on bringing a few in late in the day on Wednesday. 

"I got back into the store at about 7 p.m. yesterday," said Scott Grandchamp, S.O.B. (that's son of the boss, according to Scott) at La Grange Park Ace Hardware. "It was about a 200 mile round trip to Princeton [IL] to pick up the six generators. That's all I could fit in my truck."

Like other area hardware stores, La Grange Park Ace Hardware had been fielding generator requests all morning too. 

"We got a lot of calls early in the morning [on Wednesday] but it's died down as more people have had their power turned on," Grandchamp said. "People were thinking they were going to be a couple of hundred dollars, but they're usually at least $600-700."

The six models the store got in yesterday, Grandchamp said, retail at $739 and are good for keeping a fridge, freezer or sump pump operating.

"If don't sell them now, we will later," Grandchamp said, adding that Ace was now thinking of stocking them regularly, due to all the storms this season. 

"We'll at least sell them next time."