With the anticipated arrival of Hurricane Dennis, area grocery and retail stores are hurrying to prepare for the rush of needed provisions.

Harold Teague, manager of Piggly Wiggly, said that they purposely changed their order of supplies once the news of Dennis' arrival became a greater reality.

"We were scheduled to receive our shipment on Sunday, but we are now receiving it this Saturday morning," Teague said.

"We have already ordered extra bottled water, sodas, juices, paper supplies, batteries and extra ice.

We even made different arrangements with our canned meat order because we were wiped out last year after Hurricane Ivan.

We are trying to have anything that a person without electricity would need.

We also have lots of ice coolers in stock right now.

However, we won't be able to get the six-volt lantern batteries in stock before the storm comes."

"Because of Dennis, we've scheduled extra employees to work these next few days in order to handle customer demands.

We've noticed a greater influx in customers already.

You can just feel it in the air that something is going on.

Everyone remembers Ivan, and most of them haven't gotten over it," Teague said.

"All we can do is put everything into God's hands."

Fred's, on the Greenville Bypass, has put in its extra orders as well.

"People have already started buying supplies," Steve McGough, Fred's manager, said.

"We've ordered all the basics:

lamp oil, batteries, kerosene, flashlights, battery-operated TV's, bottled water and canned goods.

Our only problem is that the order won't arrive until next Tuesday.

But, people will need those things just as much after the storm as before the storm.

In the meantime, we have a large amount of supplies in stock now."

Furthermore, Super Foods is also gearing up for the rush.

"We've ordered extra bottled water, batteries and other supplies, but they are not in yet," Phillip Graham, manager of Super Foods, said.

One thing that cannot be overlooked, however, is Super Foods' deli.

Sharon Mitchell, bakery/deli manager, is using the experience gained from Hurricane Ivan to help her prepare for Dennis.

"I have already been on the phone ordering more food.

I have more experience this time, so we hope to be better prepared," Mitchell said.

"During those first couple of days after Ivan, we did double our normal amount of business.

Plus, we did it with only a third of the number of employees we would normally have because many of our employees couldn't get to work after the storm.

I really was proud of these ladies, and they deserve a lot of praise for the work they did during that time.

We were surrounded with a really good atmosphere filled with people working together, and I'm thankful for that and for them," Mitchell said.

Super Foods' deli has made arrangements to feed the Pioneer Electric crew in the event of power outages.

"We did it during Hurricane Ivan, and we'll do it again," Mitchell said.

"Also, we plan to have hot breakfasts and lunches just like we did during Ivan. "