Stevie Levy opened Basement Books on the Historic Liberty Square last August. She’s seen tons of crowds during Liberty’s farmers markets and fall festival. But even with dedicated customers, it’s been a hard first winter.
After the high winds and blizzard conditions Tuesday night, Levy made the tough decision to close the bookstore for the fourth time this year.
The bouts of winter storms this season have been especially hard on small business owners. Levy’s store houses a dozen local vendors that rent booth space from her. In all, Levy estimates she’s lost more than $1,000 from the short-notice closures.
“People don't really shop when the weather is not nice,” Levy said on Wednesday. “Even yesterday, before the weather moved in, it was rainy and gross and we didn't see any traffic. So it's not worth risking our cars, safety, my staff, anything like that to come out.”
Even though most of the snow cleared out by the afternoon, school closures hit Levy hard, too. She and her employees have young children, so when kids are home, it’s hard to open up the shop even if the roads are clear enough to make it in.
The rough winter has been especially hard on Levy’s new brick-and-mortar. But returning to her roots as a pop-up, as she did for a “boozy book fair” last month, has helped her stay afloat and “cushion the hard month that we had.”
From her vantage point on Liberty Square, Levy can see the weather’s toll on other small businesses, too.
“It’s its own kind of little universe,” Levy said. “Every time we're closing, there's a lot of other small businesses that are going through the same thing. It's playing with people's mental health too. We're tired of it.”
Frank Schloegel manages a building that houses multiple small businesses near Brookside. He says all of them have struggled for the last two months. Despite the winds and sudden bout of cold, Schloegel says he and the other business owners were “hardened by the storms” and came in Wednesday.
Shloegel started his morning at 6, clearing ice and snow from the parking lots and steps. This winter, Shloegel says plow and ice melt costs have skyrocketed.
Normally, he only has to have the parking lot plowed once or twice a year. He’s already had to bring in plows six times so far this season. Shloegel has to buy multiple bags of salt for each storm, which are about $15 each.
“Every time they plow, it's hundreds of dollars,” he said. ”On some of these storms they've had to plow two to three times.”
Shloegel said the combination of higher costs for heating and more frequent snow removal has busted his budget for the winter season, and took him by surprise compared to last winter.
As with Levy, having his kids home more often because of school closures has added to the expense.
“The amount of time I have to spend thinking about the snow, dealing with the kids staying home from school, buying takeout or not buying takeout, it's very expensive,” Shoelgel said.
With spring around the corner, Shloegel hopes for mild temperatures to make up for his increased winter costs.
“Everybody in property management dreams of several months where we don't use the air conditioner or the heat,” he said. “I would like it to be a nice mild spring, like 50s to 70, from here on out. That would be fantastic.”
