Weather takes a toll on businesses

The various winter weather that has visited the region during recent months is affecting more than the temperature and road conditions -- businesses are feeling the bite.

Cape Girardeau received 2 to 3 inches of snow overnight, according to the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky., on top of a layer of ice and sleet that accumulated throughout Saturday night and Sunday.

Very rarely does Patrick Furniture in Cape Girardeau close because of weather conditions, said Deborah Bock, design/sales consultant. On days like Monday when only a few "hearty souls" stop in to shop, employees catch up on projects they don't normally have time for, such as painting, working on light fixtures and sprucing up the place.

The family-owned business is "definitely impacted by the weather," she said, not only because fewer customers are able to make it to the store, but because the business' daily incoming and outgoing furniture deliveries must be rescheduled, which was one of the store's main tasks Monday.

Bock said she thinks finances will even out after the winter season because though there are few customers in the store shopping, they still are able to browse the business' website and contact the store for questions and price comparisons.

"There are other ways we can deal with it, hopefully," she said of the drop in business during winter weather.

Schnucks manager Dennis Marchi said the grocery store never closes for winter weather, and the days after the rush of customers purchasing milk, eggs and bread before winter weather don't measure up in sales.

"It's dead," he said of business Monday, because everybody is stocked up.

It costs Schnucks more in overtime and keeping more employees on the clock to keep the store staffed before predicted major winter weather. But when the weather is over and fewer customers are coming in, employees aren't told not to come in because of lack of business, he said.

"The schedule is already written," Marchi said. "We don't tell the people, 'We don't want you here.'"

Amber Lynn Brown owns Le Techniques Salon in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and said business is down about 25 percent because of the weather.

Stylists can't get to work and clients cancel and reschedule their appointments, she said in a response to a Southeast Missourian post on Facebook.

"I was hoping we could start recouping in March, but I'm not so sure now," Brown said.

The unforgiving weather also seems be taking a toll on the housing market.

Data from Multiple Listing Service listings provided by Bill Cole of Realty Executives in Cape Girardeau show there have been 101 houses sold during January and February, compared to 137 over the same period last year. Some closings on the last day of February have not been accounted for in the total closings for the first two months of this year, but Cole said he doubts the final number will match last year's total.

Cole estimated about a 15 to 20 percent decrease in home sales, and that the weather "has something to do with it," though January and February generally are the slowest months for house sales.

"There's no doubt the weather has kept some people out of the market," or holding off on purchasing a house, he said.

The MLS listings cover Cape Girardeau County, northern Perry and Scott counties, and the eastern part of Bollinger County.

Realty Executives saw its second-best January in history this year, and wrote 30 percent more contracts this February compared to last, Cole said.

Though weather affected sales in January, he said he believes "cabin fever" may have swayed people to move beginning in February.

"I think that people who need to move ... they're going to get out and do it," Cole said, but if homeowners are just looking to "move up" locally, they may sit on the sidelines and wait until spring.

ashedd@semissourian.com

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