There’s salt out there, you just have to search for it.

People looking for salt to melt ice around their homes may be looking to the wrong places for supply… some non-traditional businesses are pointing customers in their direction as a salt shortage hits the golden horseshoe. Building supply stores and garden centres are the “go to” places right now if you’re looking for salt. But the demand is starting to have an effect on price.

It’s been an extremely cold and icy winter so far and with this kind of weather the need for salt is higher than normal.

Lennox Mitchell is with Home Hardware: “It’s in today, gone tomorrow. Once word gets out that a place has salt, everybody gets in and before you know, it’s gone.”

At Ferrell Building Supplies in Hamilton, Scott Parson’s says they have more than enough for people hard up for salt: “We got lots! We knew cold weather was coming, bought it in bulk and bagged it up ourselves.”

Scott says they bought so much salt that big box stores like Canadian Tire, Home Depot and Lowes came here to buy bags of salt to restock their shelves

Dave Devries is with Coles Florist and Garden Centre: “I think we’re the only one in Grimsby with it left.”

At Coles Florist and Garden Centre hundreds of bags of salt are available.

Dave said: “I think we’re not your traditional store. We are a garden store but the first place people think of are your Canadian Tires and Home Depots.”

But as the demand for salt is up, the price may soon follow.

Dave said: “Before you came, I called our suppliers and they are sold out as well and the prices have definitely jumped on salt.”

Dave couldn’t tell me how much the price of salt has gone up.

Scott at Ferrell Building Supplies says they’ve sold more than 2,000 bags of salt since the middle of December and they have 1,000 more bags coming.