Communication Plan

Communication Plan
Safeway Stores is one of Americas leading supermarket chains It does not have a crisis management plan other than its message to managers: In the event of an emergency, work diligently to restore operations as quickly as possible. On Oct. 17 at 5:04 p.m., an earthquake struck. The tremor lasted only 15 seconds, but caused mammoth problems. About 140 of Safeway- 240 northern California stores suffered damage, some of it extensive structural damage. (Days later it was determined that 30 stores had to be closed.) Many people in the community had lost their food supply or couldn’t return to their neighborhoods, and needed quick access to a supermarket for essentials. Frank was the manager of one store, which was a mess after the earthquake: bottles of wine stained the floor; thousands of bottles of catsup, peanut butter and jelly were broken. Shelves were broken, refrigerator cases fell over, and light fixtures had fallen to the ground. Frank asked for the local fire department- help to keep customers out of the store. However, customers Frank had known for years were arriving at his store. Many were crying and in shock. They asked for water, milk, bread, batteries - whatever was available. Frank couldn’t communicate with senior management because most phone lines weren’t working. Several key Safeway executives were at ballpark, watching the 3rd game of the World Series. Within minutes, they were all trying to use their phones, trying to call the stores and assess the damage. However, the quake closed the San Francisco Bay Bridge and a mile of an interstate freeway had collapsed, killing and trapping hundreds of cars and their passengers. This meant that many of the Safeway executives were stuck in traffic. Power was out in several counties and fires were reported in the mountains around the area. In one way, Frank was fortunate. Unlike other stores, he didn’t have injured customers. However, he did have the worry of potential fires from broken gas pipes. Frank knew that Safeway had a strong community relations program, and this was an emergency. So he and his employees dug out batteries, bottled water, and whatever intact goods they could find, then stood in the parking lot and gave away essentials until they were gone. All over northern California, news outlets are trying to interview store managers and any employee they can find. Photographers have gone into damaged stores to take pictures of the messiest aisles they could find. As the PR manager for Safeway stores, you are called to an emergency meeting to outline a communications plan for this emergency. Some questions you need to answer are: 1. What should the media be told? How will you get your information to them? 2. The community is worried about getting essential items. What should you tell the community? How will you get that information to them? 3. If some store food items are retrievable, should they be sold at price, at discount, given away, or simply discarded? 4. How can you contact your employees? 5. What would be important to have in place before something like this happens?