If you are all out of salt right now, you might have given up. We wouldn't blame you.
We checked several Cincinnati Home Depot, Lowe's and Ace Hardware stores on Tuesday, and all were sold out. You can use kitchen salt or vinegar for some at-home defrosting, as we demonstrated on Monday, but that will only cover a step or two.
But we found some unlikely places that may still have ice melt for sale.
Check swimming pool stores
Chris Schwitzer, store manager ofEastgate Pools and Spa on old SR-74 in Eastgate, has a better tip: Try swimming pool salt.
"It does seem to work," he said.
On Wednesday morning, Schwitzer's store still had plenty of bags of pool salt, which is just ground differently than driveway salt.
"It's a more granulated salt then rock salt, so it is a finer powder," he explained, meaning it can be tougher to spread.
Other pool supply shops in the region should have good supplies of pool salt as well.
Farm, landscape, mower stores
You might also check with farm supply and landscape stores.
On Cincinnati's East Side, Evans Landscaping in Newtown still had both bagged and bulk rock salt.
Also check Neff Landscape and Garden Center in Batavia, which posted that they still have salt.
On Cincinnati's West Side, Klei Mower on Colerain Avenue posts on their Facebook page when they get salt shipments in.
They just received a shipment Tuesday afternoon.
In Kentucky, Mullins Supply Barn in Crittendentold us Tuesday they had buckets of salt for sale. They also post salt updates on their Facebook page.
Some locally- owned hardware still have salt, so check around. Cliff Hardware in Sharonville had good supplies as of Wednesday.
Note that any of the places listed here could run out at any time, so check their Facebook page, call or email before you make a 20-minute drive.
Or you can just hope to get lucky, as Gary Dent did.
His son called to say Speedway in Mt. Carmel had just received a shipment of bags late Tuesday.
"He says, 'Dad you won't believe it. Speedway's got ice melt!' So I came here to get a bag," a thrilled Dent told us.
These days, finding a pile of salt bags is almost enough to make you cry.
If you know of other stores with plentiful supplies, send us an email so you don't waste your money.
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