As y'all know, Beryl cam and went, leaving over 2 million folks w/o power. I was luckily spared, but my dad (in the Spring Branch area) was not. Being a stubborn old man, he does not want to come and stay with us until power is restored. And, that leads us to ICE, or the lack of it. No one has it. Or, if they had it, they flew off the box in a flash.

Yesterday, I had to drive way out and look for it so dad can have his drinks and food preserved in the Igloo. Still, no one had it. But at one of the Shell stations, this cashier lady told me no ice for sale, but "I'll give you some, free". I was shocked but thought she was going to give me a cup of ice from the soft drink machine. But no, "Go into the back and load ice from the icemaker into this trash bag". My shock went up double. So, I got some ice out of it but didn't want to be greedy. As I walked out, she said, "That's all? Go get some more". She insisted, even after I said I needed to leave some for others. So, I got a little bit more. Holy cow! Triple shock. Then, as I was leaving thanking her profusely, she said, "If you need more later, come back and get some". That's it, quadruple shock. I told her she's God's send.

This morning, hoping things have eased up a little, I decided to see if the neighborhood gas station had ice. Guy said, "No ice, but how many bags you want?". Was confused but told him one bag. He went in the back and grabbed one and said "6 dollars". Bag of ice is $3, so, they hide the ice in the back and gouge their customers.
HEB also had a few left over, but most of the ice bags were about half melted.

So, we're good for the next 48 hours at least. Hopefully, power will fully be restored on by then in Spring Branch.

If you have access to any medical facility, many pharma products are shipped with reusable. I care packs. Most are gel-impregnated foam blocks. I have 1 dozen of them. I secondary-wrapped them on a food saver sleeve vacuum sealed and keep them frozen. They will last 24 hours. They are thrown away and they are happy to give them to you! I use them very often over and over again. I dump the icemaker tray for any ice I need, but that is a rare exception.

Bless the first lady, truly generous.

at the 2nd, that's just insane.
None of those drive up $1 ice machines around you?

Report them, it's a big problem with vendors gouging during disasters, all the gulf states have Hurricane anti gouging laws and the the OAG of those states want to know about people who do it.

Heres the 411 from the State of TX OAG and how to report them, people like that need their butts kicked.

Texans who believe they’ve been scammed or price gouged by any business should call the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Hotline toll-free at (800) 621-0508, email consumeremergency@oag.texas.gov, or file a complaint online at https://www.texasattorneygener...e-consumer-complaint

I got power restored in Katy yesterday, after a 50-hour outage.
Same situation over here. Kroger, H-E-B, Buc-ee's, no ice anywhere!

Sheep and goats.
Wheat and tares.

Angels and Assholes

Definitely opposite ends of the spectrum.

Thanks for this. Will add to the list for the garage when I build out my rural land. Ice maker, same as restaurants have. With the it plastic scoop. Already have redundant power designed so this will be an added expense but mild.

Q - Just reading this. Had I read this earlier I would have offered to go and purchase a small countertop ice maker at a local Wal-Mart or Sam’s and met you on the road somewhere. That would have allowed you to make extra ice at your house for your dad. Glad you found that wonderful lady that provided you what you needed, for now.

This makes me wonder if I should spend $100.00 for one of these countertop units in the event we lose power in the future (we have a small generator that would run our lights. Gonna have to check and see if it would run our refrigerator and lights at the same time.

Let me know if I can help - call or email. Mark

It's been a good while since I used them but our McDonald (yes I said McDonald's!) Will fill a cooler with ice for you if you ask.

Of course it takes power to make it so...

Retail sales in America these days is like spinning a giant wheel of chance.

Results vary day to day hour to hour location to location.

We've found by getting the same waiter/waitress on a regular basis and interacting with them a wee bit every time.

The familiarity affects results the majority of the time.

You shouldn't have to keep a file on establishments and employees ,
But if it makes life more pleasurable. . . . .

downtownv and Mark, thanks for the offer to help, but we're good. Things are looking up. HEB has plenty of ice, now. And they're less than two bucks each.

If you ever find yourself in that situation again, try stopping by any fire station. Every one of our stations have commercial ice makers, and anyone who stops by and asks for it, can fill their coolers up.