District's salt rush increases sales by 50 per cent

Stores across the area have made record sales of the white stuff this week as customers put their DIY skills into action by salting their own driveways and footpaths.

The continued snowy and icy conditions have forced many people to take matters into their own hands to prevent slipping and skidding in what has been one of the worst winters on record for many years.

While sales of all kinds of salt are up, deliveries of the household ingredient have slowed almost to a halt for some local shops during the past two weeks.

With a high demand for salt across Northern Ireland deliveries have been scarce according to Supervalu manager Michael McCartan.

He said, “We have only been getting maybe one in three or four deliveries lately but whatever salt we have is just flying off the shelves.

“We got a delivery in last week that was sold out in two days and are due another delivery in this evening but don’t know if that will happen or not.”

The town’s Centra has reported a 50 per cent upturn in sales of salt during the past fourteen days with most customers confessing to panic buying.

The store manager told the Leader, “Delivery-wise we haven’t been too bad, but our sales have definitely increased since the bad weather has taken hold.

“A lot of people are coming in and buying maybe a few bags of salt at a time.”