[bell-cot]

> It is highly contestable that every single Western supermarket out there has a diesel generator down in the back / storage room that will kick in in an instant if a power outage begins.

Literally true. However:

- If it takes them 10 minutes to fire up the generator, then 5 minutes to restart the network and registers, that is no big issue (in a many-hour outage)

- At least in my part of the USA, many supermarkets do have generators - because storm damage causes local outages relatively often, and they'd lose a lot of money if they couldn't keep their freezers and refrigerators powered. Since the power requirements of the lighting and registers are just (compared to the cooling equipment) a rounding error, those are also on generators.

[IIsi50MHz]

Plus, there are backup-power lories and refrigerated trailers. If your shop doesn't have enough backup power for duration, you might see several of these pull into the carpark all at once. If not all of the chillers can be powered, shop's staff will schlep stuff to the refrigerated lories.

Seen it done in USA, for a Target next to a Kroger grocer. Kroger lost everything that needed cold after reserve either ran out or wouldn't start, but Target had a contingencies contract and lost no product.