H-E-B addresses photo of empty shelves circulating on social media
H-E-B says that they are not facing a bread supply shortage despite a viral photo.
Steven Santana | MySA
You’ve probably seen this viral photo of grocery store bread shelves that are nearly barren making the rounds on social media claiming that its at a San Antonio H-E-B. Wel,l it should be taken with a grain of salt.
A Twitter user with the handle @loveshawaii shared the viral photo on Sunday, January 9, saying the empty shelves were at a “H-E-B in San Antonio, TX” with #BareShelvesBiden. The photo has been shared by another account saying the empty shelves are at Winn Dixie store in Florida with the same hashtag.
H-E-B spokesperson Julie Bedingfield acknowledged supply chain issues across the nation, but said in an emailed statement that the San Antonio-based grocery store chain isn’t having bread supply issues.
“Given the difficult circumstances with supply chain across the nations, our stores are in good shape due to our great procurement team,” Bedingfield said.
Other people in the replies of @loveshawaii’s tweet called out the validity of the photo. One person said that H-E-B store shelves in Houston were “filled with food.” Others called the tweet an attempt to make the political hashtag go viral.
Another user tweeted out that the it “must be bread delivery day,” implying that shelves just hadn’t been restocked yet. Bedingfield said the photo could have been from a time when store supply was strained.
“We are not sure where the photo is from and it could be taken anytime during the pandemic, snow storm or a hurricane,” Bedingfield said.
At the onset of the pandemic panicking led to customers clearing out shelves but the current photos posted online should not immediately be taken at face value.
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