HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Some small businesses in the rocket city were greatly impacted by icy weather conditions last week. One major concern from some of those business owners is the financial setback. FOX54 spoke with a few of those local businesses to hear from those owners firsthand.
Yeon Arnold Owner of Big Oh's Cooking at Home at Clinton Row Shops on Clinton Avenue said last week's weather conditions definitely took her by surprise. "It was ice. I mean, I couldn't believe it. You know, people just whatever skating around here."
From a business standpoint, Arnold explained that financially that time off was pretty hard on her business. "One day, make big, big difference."
Jeannie Gibson Owner of Creative State Gift Shop agrees and adds that just because her business was closed, that doesn't stop the bills. "Financially we depend upon customers coming in and, you know, purchasing items or or us either either at the shop or one of the others here in Clinton Row Shops. And when you don't have customers, you have no income, but your rent is still due."
Ashli Ingram Co-Owner of AM Collective continued that her business was already struggling a little after Christmas. So, this just made it ten times worse. She goes on to say, "being out an entire week of revenue really hurts us, especially since things don't really pick up sales wise until March."
Furthermore, AM Collective already has a short week. "We're only open Wednesday through Saturday. So between the ice last week closing us down for the entire week and the rain this week, it's kind of put a damper on our January." Ingram believes January and February are just rough as it is." So this put a whole new stress on it."