Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 16, 1993 TAG: 9303160028
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
STORES DIG OUT AFTER BIG LOSSES
Revenues of up to $5 million may have been lost by Roanoke Valley merchants in Saturday's snowdrifts, but some stores will try to recoup.Most stores were forced to close on what is usually the busiest shopping day of the week. Valley retail sales amount to an average of $5 million a day, based on state Department of Taxation figures for March of last year.
All retailers had a big loss Saturday, "but I assure you we will try to make it up" with special promotions to attract shoppers, said Sidney Miller, regional manager for Leggett department stores. Shoppers came out Monday as parking lots were cleared, "but it won't be near a 50 percent day," he said.
The company is holding a planning meeting today to try to determine how to regain the lost sales, Miller said. That business is gone, he said, but "it's a necessity" to try to regain the sales.
Valley View Mall's general manager, Joe Marx, said his 120 tenants missed a substantial amount of revenue over the snowy weekend. He called the loss "missed opportunity."
At Tanglewood Mall, merchants are looking at possible ways to recover the weekend's sales, according to Judy Tulius, the center's manager. Tanglewood has 101 tenants. The winter storm "will really affect March sales," she said.
Grocers, however, enjoyed a boom when consumers stocked up on food in anticipation of the storm. Kroger supermarkets were refilling shelves Monday after the heavy shopping run before the snow, said Joann Boone, a spokeswoman for the food chain's mid-Atlantic marketing area. The biggest demand was for milk and bread, Boone said.
Many of the stores were open Saturday and Sunday, she said. "We always try to keep regular hours," Boone added.
Firewood sold out at Roanoke Valley 7-Eleven stores, according to Otis Sowder of the convenience-store chain. Managers decided whether to open or close their stores during the snowfall, but nobody was open Saturday night, Sowder said.
First Union Corp.'s Dominion Bank said its weekend business fell dramatically, as measured by five normally heavily used automated teller machines. Transactions at teller machines at three branch banks dropped 65 percent between 2 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Monday compared with the same period a week ago, said bank spokeswoman Brenda McDaniel.
Business at two of the machines inside Kroger stores declined 44 percent, indicating that people continued shopping for groceries, McDaniel said. Branches in the stores were closed so customers had access only to the machines.
One major business, Blockbuster Entertainment Corp.'s video stores in the Roanoke Valley, initially were as unforgiving as the storm, with clerks telling customers on Sunday they would be charged a $2-plus late fee if they didn't return videos as due.
By Monday, Blockbuster thawed and was forgiving the late fees.
"Our basic position on issues like this is to use good judgment," said Mike Beck, director of strategic planning for W.J.B. of Spartanburg, S.C., which owns the area Blockbuster stores.
The problem is that with so many employees that creed is not always followed, said Beck.
He said the company had weather problems throughout its area, including in Spartanburg, where 4 inches of snow "is nasty by our standards."
Staff writers Sandra Brown Kelly and Mag Poff contributed to this story.