<p>Supermarkets along the east coast, including New York and North Carolina, have ventured into the world of social media to keep their customers informed during the Hurricane Irene crisis. The businesses have utilized the media networks Twitter and Facebook, allowing the companies to relay information specific to the city, county, and chain about closures, supplies, power outages and other details they want to make readily available.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Many of the supermarkets in New York and the surrounding areas were forced to close early on Saturday, due to the city’s decision to suspend mass transit. In places such as North Carolina and Virginia where power outages were rampant, Harris Teeter was able to utilize Facebook to inform customers of what locations were open and whether they were offering necessities such as water and ice. As of Monday, Harris Teeter was still using Twitter as a resource for informing their customers, “We are still distributing water and ice at our Morehead City location, while supplies last. Trailers are in route to our New Bern store, expected to arrive by 6pm and we will resume water and ice distribution at that time.”</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Monday morning, the MTA’s Service Advisory Update had most of the mass transit system listed as running. Whole Foods Market, after receiving the news from the MTA, tweeted “Our 6 stores are now open, have a great morning.” As of August 28th, Supervalu had updated their Facebook status stating, “As Hurricane Irene draws closer to the East Coast, we will be closely monitoring the storm in order to keep our employees and customers informed and updated. We will be posting updates about our impacted stores here on Facebook.” There are currently two Shoppers locations still closed due to Hurricane Irene.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Other supermarkets who have been using the social media network to report situations directly to their customers are FreshDirect, A&P, and Big Y.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
