The shortage of salt across the province has become prevalent in London, especially as more winter weather is expected to track into the region.
Staff at Tuckey Home Hardware in Wortley Village say they had 48 skids of salt to start the season, and have completely run out.
Kaye Dempsey, a customer service representative, says all the shelves that previously held salt are now empty except for a few containers of ice melt.
"It's hard on us, hard on everybody when we don't have any salt, but we can't get any out of the warehouse, this is it,” Dempsey says.
London resident John Keough was one of many who showed up at the store on Wednesday hoping to find salt.
"I come to pick up some salt for my building that I’m looking after and I don't see any salt,” Keough says.
He says he manages a building and was hoping to buy 10 bags to make walkways and parking lots safer for residents.
He is hoping milder weekend temperatures will help melt the ice since there isn’t enough salt to go around.
Dempsey says the store did end up receiving an additional 30 bags of salt Wednesday afternoon after a local company over-ordered and decided to return some to the store.
But it’s a supply she says won’t last long.
"Part of it, we believe, is the strike in Goderich that finally settled this past year, the other is it's just been an awful, awful year for it. Everybody's needed more than usual,” Dempsey says.
According to several other sources such as the Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority and Landscape Ontario - that’s part of the reason, on top of April's ice event that also depleted reserves.
Dempsey says the store has lots of sand and says that can work well on ice as well for those who need to de-ice their walkways and driveways.
