Local business explains how snow day affected sales
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Many businesses across the area were closed last Friday due to the winter storm.
Small businesses often feel more financial strain than larger ones during unexpected closures.
Philip Rivera is the manager of Coffeehouse on the 5th in Columbus.
“Losing a day where we would make between $500 and $1,000 in one day, yeah, it affected us,” said Rivera.
Friday is typically one of their busiest days, but the winter storm forced them to close.
“We plan to bounce back soon. Any month that (starts with) ‘J’ usually is not as up as you want it to be for retail, but we’ll bounce back,” said Rivera.
Rivera said January is generally slow for business as customers cut back after a lot of holiday spending.
In the meantime, the coffeehouse uses the downtime productively.
“Deep cleans, logistical stuff, reorganizing, things of that nature until it picks back up,” said Rivera.
Rivera also said they waited until Friday morning to make the decision to close, hoping the roads would be clear.
However, he still planned ahead.
“As far as preparation, we only just had to cancel a milk order on Thursday, but other than that, we just waited for the snow to come to us,” said Rivera.
Coffeehouse on 5th reopened on Saturday, January 12, and has since resumed normal hours.
