Cleveland Heights shopper Justin Alcorn created a Facebook event called "Zagara's Cash Mob" starting at 8 a.m. Saturday. "We want hundreds of people to be lined up at opening time to show the family that Cleveland Heights considers them our neighbors and friends," he said.
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Residents and longtime customers of Zagara's Marketplace in Cleveland Heights are organizing a cash mob on Saturday, hoping to flood the family-owned supermarket with shoppers and a much-needed infusion of cash to compensate for the losses from last week's storms.
Zagara's closed for several hours on Aug. 10 and 11, but the sustained loss of power and refrigeration forced third-generation owner John Zagara to throw out entire cases of perishable food.
John Zagara, third-generation owner of Zaraga's Marketplace in Cleveland Heights, lost nearly $100,000 worth of perishables because of sustained power losses after last week's storms. Some of his shoppers are organizing a cash mob on Saturday to help him recoup the losses that insurance won't cover "The retail value of product that we threw away that we couldn't sell was about $95,000," he said. "I have insurance," but it only covers how much it cost to buy the food, not the expenses required to stock it, store it, refrigerate it, ring it up or bag it.
Surrounded by stacks of receipts at his desk on Wednesday, he said: "We're still going through the paperwork," and still don't know the total extent of the loss.
Powerful storms that ripped through Cleveland Heights and other parts of Northeast Ohio at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9, had subsided by Wednesday. "On Wednesday at 8 a.m., we opened in anticipation of the power coming back on," Zagara said. Backup generators kept the lights and registers on. He covered his open dairy cases and reach-in coolers with sheets of heavy plastic to keep in whatever cold air he could.
But by 10 a.m., the refrigerators had been off for 12 hours.
And by noon, "the power was back on, but I no longer felt comfortable selling those products," Zagara said. "It wasn't safe to sell, and it wasn't safe to donate. We ended up pulling everything at that point." He and other workers started clearing out everything from the dairy and deli cases, the meat coolers and seafood bins, and the prepared foods section.
The food was scanned through the registers before it was thrown out, for insurance and inventory purposes, but it all ended up in the Dumpsters outside. Then his backup generator blew a radiator hose and wouldn't restart.
When the lights flickered out again on Thursday, workers closed the store again, but Zagara told them to reopen it, to sell cereal, canned food, bottled water, soft drinks, juice boxes, beer, and other essentials to residents who were still out of power.
FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said three different weather events last week combined to knock out power last week: Storms hit the East Side on Tuesday evening, Aug. 9, followed by more on the West Side Wednesday evening, and another system came through on Friday.
"More than 140,000 customers lost power at one point or another, and about 10,000 of them were in Cleveland Heights," he said. "There were a lot of poles that were down," and crews spent the week scrambling around neighborhoods trying to repair and replace snapped lines.
Restoring power took longer than usual because of all the toppled trees, and the fact that most power lines are in people's back yards. "Our not being able to get our bucket trucks back in there meant that our crews had to literally put spikes on their legs to get up the poles," he said.
"It looked as if Cleveland Heights bore the brunt of this storm. That seemed to be the ground zero of this power outtage," he said.
Justin Alcorn, a longtime Cleveland Heights shopper and father of eight, created a Facebook event called "Zagara's Cash Mob" for 8 a.m. Saturday, and invited 100 of his friends, asking them to share it with their friends.
Within days, the number of people invited to the event had grown to 871, with 154 people interested and 78 people saying they are going.
"We were talking about it in our neighborhood, about how Zagara's is such an important part of the community," he said. "We're not going to make up the $90,000 worth of groceries that they lost, but we can certainly help. I just thought it was good to get the word out."
"Join us for a 'Cash Mob" at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 20, 2016. We want hundreds of people to be lined up at opening time to show the family that Cleveland Heights considers them our neighbors and friends," he wrote.
"Arrive before 8:00 a.m. I would suggest going and buying just a couple of items so we can get the 'Cash Mob" in and out and hopefully not inconvenience regular shoppers -- and also be sure to do your regular shopping there at another time."
"While the 8 AM until 9 AM time frame is emotionally important, it's even more important to just go whenever you can that day and make a purchase," Alcorn added.
Responses are very positive, with one person saying, "Only for such a worthy cause would I get out to the grocery store when it's doors are opening on a Saturday morning!"
"This is a great store with many great employees, great product," another shopper wrote. "Great wine list. Great deals on plants, and their clientele is great, too! Get in shop and help them recover their loss. That's what I'm gonna do!"
Alcorn said: "It's important that the Zagara family know that they're important to us. I go there for high quality stuff, because they're a big supporter of the community and the schools."
"If we can get 100 to 150 people to line up when Zagara's opens on Saturday morning, that would be great," he said.