Is Bad Weather Bad for Business?

“I saw a Facebook post the other day that said ‘Well, I can’t drive anywhere anymore. Guess I’ll order a pizza,’” says an employee working the counter at Pizza Hut Friday night. “No one cares about pizza delivery drivers.”

With the winter weather immobilizing many San Angeloans over the weekend, numerous businesses have seen a plunge traffic and in sales since Thursday, but the pizza delivery business is booming.

“We’ve had a huge spike,” said Assistant Manager Jarred Lujan. “Whenever the roads are deemed too dangerous we stop delivering.” Since yesterday, the flow of orders has been pretty consistent, says Lujan, who mentions that the jump takes place anytime there’s bad weather.

“I think people understand some level of danger,” Lujan said, disavowing the assertion of his employee. “Whenever we have higher [delivery] times, they understand that too.”

As Pizza Hut wagons zoomed through the city delivering saucy stuffed crusts, other San Angelo storefronts stood shuttered from the cold or almost entirely vacant save from a few bored employees.

“It’s definitely slowed things down a little bit,” said Best Buy Manager Jerami Warren of the weather. “We had a few employee call outs so that’s the biggest problem right now.” Warren says that a lot of his employees drive in from neighboring communities, and that days like Friday are rough on turn out.

“We haven’t adjusted our hours, but I know a lot of other stores have,” he said. “We close at 10 p.m. tonight.”

By 8:00 p.m., the shopping center had come to resemble a ghost town. The neighboring lot in front of Academy had cleared and stood stark naked next to that of Best Buy, which had at least four cars parked on its surface.

Pet’s Mart and a handful of other retailers had also closed their doors, each with a little note taped up on the door reading something to the effect of ‘closed due to weather conditions.’

In the mall, the scene was the same. Dropped security gates and dimmed lights dotted the walk through mall corridors, and small tribes of mostly teenagers walked boisterously from store to store.

“It’s the younger people [who turned out to shop today] because they are out of school,” said a manager at Dilliard’s. “[The weather] definitely adversely affected our business.”

For those who did show up to shop, warm winter articles were the products of choice. An employee in the shoe department said winter shoes sales had been the  hot commodities of the day, with customers seeking out UGGs and fur-lined boots to keep their toes toasty this season.

But even with the bad weather, the day wasn’t a total business bust.

“I got here at one and it started to pick up gradually as people started to get out and the streets started to thaw out,” said Warran.

“We peaked at about that time (2:00 p.m.),” said a Dilliard’s manager. “It (store traffic) went down when the sun went down. “

Local grocery store H-E-B saw similar trends. “I got here at  4:00 [p.m.] but I know that this morning there was no one here. ” said H-E-B Manager Kevin Noble, “At around 2:00, when the sun came out, everyone came. It was full.”

Noble said that soups and stews were the store’s most popular items, with employees having to frequently restock the emptying shelves. Hot cocoa, coffee and tea were also favored among bundled patrons, and an extra bin of cocoa boxes had been set up near the checkout lanes.

“Cold weather seems to do that to people,” Noble said of the increased bustle. “They tend to come out and buy a lot of stuff. I guess because the don’t want to get stuck at their house without it.”