Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 25, 1994 TAG: 9412070021
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CLAUDINE WILLIAMS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It seems that people are anticipating a bad winter," said Overstreet, whose sales of winter-related merchandise increased 10 percent this fall.
The winter items started to move in August, when people came in to buy shovels and ice scrapers.
Wood's Ace Hardware on Grandin Road in Roanoke stocked up early this year.
Bill Wood, the store's manager, said hardware customers believe this winter is going to be rough. And when they come into his store, he said, he will be ready.
So far he has doubled his stock on sleds, kerosene and heaters, ice melt - a rock-salt substance that melts the ice off sidewalks - and nearly everything else that has to do with the winter. He added about 700 snow shovels to the 1,100 he usually orders.
"People may think I am crazy for buying so many of them," Wood said. "But when no one else has shovels, I will have them and people will remember that."
Piles of ice melt are ready and waiting in the warehouse behind the store, Wood said.
Last winter, he had to turn away 300 to 400 customers while waiting for suppliers to help him restock the store, Wood said.
"When the first snowflake falls, that is no time for me to be looking for shovels or ice melt," Wood said. "It is going to be hard to find. So I have to be ready early."
Power generators were among the items hard to find after last winter's storms downed many Appalachian Power Co. lines, said Bonnie Horn, manager of Star Equipment Corp.
"Our roof started to leak when all of the ice began to melt, and we had people standing in line, in an inch of water, to rent the generators."
The number of generators the store rented tripled immediately after the first storm, Horn said.
This winter her store has increased its stock by about 50 percent.
"This year, with the first sign of an ice storm, I should have a lot of generators," she said. "And if you don't have a generator, ice skating may be a good hobby to take up if the electricity goes out."
More customers than last year are trying to keep the cold air out of homes by adding insulation, said J.R. Morgan, assistant manager of 84 Lumber Co. in Salem.
"If they have the time to do it themselves, people are opting to insulate," Morgan said. "Last year it got kind of bad, and this year they don't want to be caught."
by CNB