Degrees of success for seasonal sales

The infamous heat and humidity of the Southeast Missouri summer is a torment to most, but certain businesses need those hot temperatures to keep afloat.

For those businesses, sales have been slower than usual this year. But with the temperature increase of the past few days, things have begun to look up, and many of them are adopting an optimistic outlook on the coming months.

"We're very busy right now because we're running so far behind," said Laura Farmer of Farmer's Pools and Spas in Cape Girardeau. "We've been held up this year by all the rain and cool temperatures, so we couldn't install any pools.

"But we've seen a sharp rise in calls over the past few days. We've probably had several hundred calls a day since Monday."

The cooler than usual early-summer temperatures have even affected large-scale retailers across the country. Earlier this week, Wal-Mart announced that its sales of weather-sensitive merchandise for early summer, especially May, had not met expectations.

J.C. Penney at Westfield Shoppingtown West Park has experienced the same problem, said store manager Gary McDowell. Sales for summer merchandise, which usually start to pick up in April, were fairly slow until mid-May.

"In the last two days we've had big sales gains, which might have something to do with the weather," McDowell said. "I think that trend will continue now that the weather's getting warmer."

But the cool, wet spring -- which continued right into the first day of summer on Saturday -- had the most impact on businesses that rely almost entirely on hot temperatures for their success. One is Ty's Sno Shop, located in front of the Town Plaza in Cape Girardeau.

"It can be frustrating when you have periods of continuous bad weather," said Brandy Zahner of Cape Girardeau, an employee of Ty's. "I wouldn't really say business has been slow this summer, but it's down from past years.

"We have had an increase in business these past two days with the warmer temperatures."

Sliding business

The weather has had an even greater effect on the Lickitysplit Water Slide in Jackson. The slide has suffered large losses compared to previous years.

"So far the summer's just been terrible," said owner P.J. Leuckel. "The rain hurt us a lot, just like it hurt other water recreation places like canoe rentals."

In the past few warm days, he said, the park has seen about a 50 percent increase in business, leaving him optimistic about the summer.

The sudden rise in temperatures that forced many people to seek relief in the water also has them turning on their air conditioners, bringing a jump in business for repair and sales of cooling units.

"We've been busy all along this summer," said Teresa Lichtenegger, office manager at Flori Heating and Cooling, "but since Monday we've really seen a large increase in business.

"People just had not turned on their air conditioners until these past few days, and when they did they found out their units weren't cooling."

Weather forecasts are showing a cold front heading for the Cape Girardeau area, bringing with it some rain and cooler temperatures over the next week, and possibly a chance to give the air conditioner another rest.

But this is Southeast Missouri, and with July -- and its average 90-degree days-- less than a week away, people can likely count on a long, tormenting period of sweltering hot temperatures and humidity.

And that means that the demand for items like snow cones and swimming pools can only go one way -- up.

People like Pat Carter with Angels Aware preschool and daycare of Cape Girardeau will continue to turn to the businesses that help beat the heat. She took her preschool and daycare kids to Ty's yesterday afternoon for a snowy treat.

The reason was obvious.

"We're here because it's hot," she said.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, ext. 226

HEATING UP

Highs for June 26 at Cape Girardeau:Year High

1993 85

1994 83

1995 78

1996 85

1997 86

1998 94

1999 81

2000 86

2001 83

2002 89

2003* 83

* Forecast

SOURCE: Southeast Missourian records

Today's weather and extended forecast, Page 2A