HOPEWELL, Hanover — More than 200 people desperately trying to buy power generators turned up at Appliance Traders Ltd’s (ATL) Montego Bay location last Friday, the day the store reopened after Hurricane Beryl walloped sections of Jamaica.

But the smaller, portable, power supply products had already been snatched up before the hurricane arrived. Sales Manager Janice Crichton said more are on the way — good news in an active hurricane season that began with a bang.

“We started getting calls from Beryl got named; and as they were tracking, and she was moving closer, and they realised that Jamaica was in direct line of sight, a lot of customers came in. They bought all of the portable — which is the smaller size — generators. They were preparing,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“We had over 200 persons visit the store in search of generators [last Friday but] by this time the small, portable generators were sold out. What we had were the medium sizes and the larger-capacity generators,” Crichton added. Hotels and villas were able to purchase the mid-sized and larger units. Now ATL is working to restock its Kingston, Ocho Rios and Montego Bay branches with a supply of portable units that range from 5,000 volt-amps to 13,000 volt-amps.

“We will receive a shipment of generators this week, if not by [Tuesday], to meet the needs of those persons who were not able to purchase on Friday or Saturday,” assured Crichton.

“It was here on the island, just to get it off the port. We now have to manage when the stock comes in because you can well understand Ocho Rios branch has the same kind of activity. With all three branches putting demand on a container of generators, you can imagine that we may not be able to supply everybody’s needs. We have ordered again for more to come in because the [hurricane] season is going to take us for the next five months,” she added.

Crichton said ATL may have to adjust, to meet changes in weather patterns.

“It tells us, as a business, that we actually have to have generators — more than one container — arriving in stock and dispatched to the various locations way ahead of time because, who to tell, maybe the season can be earlier next year,” she theorised.

“June traditionally is the start but, based on what the indicators are with global warming or all the other activities that they’re saying are contributing to all this abnormality, who says the hurricane season can’t move up from May? As a business, we are prepared,” Crichton added.

ATL Montego Bay was one of four suppliers that told the Observer on Monday that they had run out of generators for the home. At Best Value Supercenter in Hopewell, Hanover, a supervisor who gave his name as Richie said the last one was sold a day before Hurricane Beryl arrived.

He said almost two dozen were sold between last Monday and Tuesday.

“It sold like hot bread. Even though we were sold out from last week Tuesday, people keep asking for it. We did not have much in stock. We sold 10 on Monday and 11 on Tuesday and that’s it,” Richie revealed.

He said they are trying to get new stock from their suppliers in China but these will take approximately two months to reach Jamaica, and the price will not be the same as it was pre-Beryl.

“The price will definitely increase because of different variables such as the demand and the dollar,” Richie insisted.

However, ATL’s Crichton is assuring the public that they will not burden customers with an unscheduled price increase during the hurricane season.

“ATL will not be increasing any prices, that’s for sure, because we have to protect our customers; this is a time of our greatest need. It’s the same principle we do for air conditioning units. In the summer, when the demand is greater, that’s the time that we actually put all air conditioning units on sale. It will be the same for the generators,” she said.

“We will not be increasing anything above what we would have normally priced this at. Remember, a new inventory came in so it would attract new prices, but we’re not going to be price gouging or taking advantage,” she assured.

There have been reports or price gouging at other companies who offer generators for sale in St James. One woman complained of the price of a generator doubling from $40,000 to $80,000 within the time it took her to get cash from an ATM to complete the purchase.