Power outage closes 24-hour store

The old saying goes, ‘You don’t realize what you’ve got until it’s gone.’

When a two-hour power outage Monday night shut down Circle K, the only 24-hour convenience store in Ketchum, some folks had trouble dealing with their loss.

Assistant manager Stephanie Hays has worked at the Ketchum Circle K store for about a year and has never had to close the place. When the power outage crippled the store at about 9 p.m. Monday, she said there were two things people wanted.

"Beer and cigarettes pretty much," Hays said. "And I sold a bag of ice."

As she stood in the alley behind the store talking to the lineman from Idaho Power, a regular customer rode up on a bike with $5 in his hand and said, "Two forties of Old E," (shorthand for two 40-ounce bottles of Old English brand beer, please).

"You gotta have exact change," Hays said.

"Take the five and keep the change," said the young man.

So for a couple hours or so, Hays kept track of sales by hand and made change with the $26 and assorted coins in the pocket of her smock.

The outage meant she couldn’t open the register and had to keep the coolers shut so the beer stayed cold and frozen food frozen.

When the lineman told Hays it would be at least an hour before the store would have electricity again, two firefighters, who came to help, smiled, turned to Hays and asked, "Ice cream sale?"