FOCUS: SUMMER BUSINESS
Seasonal businesses hurt by 'dismal' summer weather
Restaurants, marinas, lawn care companies take a hit
Thursday’s sunshine and warmer temperatures were a welcome relief for Richi Alberts.
The owner of Mickey Rats and Captain Kidd’s in Angola-on-the- Lake said the recent below-average temperatures, scattered showers and winds whipping down the beach behind his restaurant have cut his business by 50 percent.
On warm, sunny days, the entertainment complex employs 75 to 100. Lately, Alberts has only needed about 40 to staff his business.
“As far as cold temperatures and constant winds, it’s been a number of years since it’s been this bad,” Alberts said. “It’s pretty tough to be in an area that’s sun-related and summer-related.”
Alberts is not alone.
In an already sluggish economy, the stubborn weather pattern has put a damper on businesses that depend on Western New York’s short summer for their livelihood, cutting into profits and reducing demand for seasonal workers.
Restaurants, the Buffalo Bisons and waterfront hot spots are calling fewer employees into work, marina gasoline remains unpumped as boats stay docked, and lawn care companies are canceling work on washout days.
It’s not clear just how much of the slump is due to consumers cutting back because of the recession, which has cost the region almost 14,000 jobs over the last year, while forcing other workers to get by on reduced hours or flat wages, said John Slenker, the state Labor Department’s regional economist in Buffalo.
But there’s no question that the dreary summer weather isn’t helping, especially for seasonal businesses that count on the narrow window of the summer months to make a profit.
“If you have a three-month season, and the entire month is rained out, you have to make it up in the other two months,” Slenker said. “That’s very difficult to do.”
Steve McLaughlin, meteorologist and climatologist for the National Weather Service at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, said this has been the most dismal summer in five years. By this point in the summer, Buffalo usually boasts 17 days of 80-degree temperatures. So far, there have been only six. Normally, the region receives 65 percent of potential sunshine in June. This year, there was 54 percent.
Rainfall is near normal for the summer, but its frequency is high. McLaughlin said three out of every four days since June 20 have included a threat of rain.
“It’s coincided with kids getting out of school,” McLaughlin said. “That’s when the weather started getting shaky.”
Outdoor destinations have taken the hardest hit.
Fantasy Island’s attendance is down 10 percent from last year. Scattered showers cut the Maid of the Mist’s attendance between 10 and 20 percent, while a soaking rain translates to half as much business.
And according to Tad Matthews, chief executive officer of Rich Marine Sales, the difference in customers between rainy and sunny days is like “turning a faucet off and on.”
Mike McGuire, public relations director for Fantasy Island, said the sluggish economy, the weather and new border- crossing rules have all played a factor in the downturn. The park has to remain fully operational, even if the rain drives the crowds away.
“People that are here deserve the complete experience,” he said.
Mike Buczkowski, general manager of the Buffalo Bisons, said there have been 12 rainouts or rain delays out of the 50 home games scheduled this season. Rain, either downtown or in another part of the area, decreases attendance by up to 65 percent.
Buczkowski said ticket takers, ushers and vendors can be sent home, depending on the crowds. The Bisons have yet to have a home stretch where rain was not in the forecast, he said.
“Right now, we’re taking it one day at a time,” he said.
Nearby at the Erie Basin Marina’s Hatch restaurant, the lunchtime crowd of 700 to 800 customers, often lined up outside the door, dips to less than 100 in rainy weather.
Mike Wolasz, operations director of Brand-On Services, which maintains the marina, said the cloudy, cool weather of the last couple weeks often forced him to reduce the grill lines from two to one, cut the number of open ice cream windows from four to two and close the clam bar.
“This is strictly a weather operation. No doubt about it,” Wolasz said.
Other companies are inconvenienced, but can continue on. Tim Casey, director of operations for Elber’s Landscape Service, said heavy rain cancels work for the company’s 18 laborers, to avoid damaging customers’ lawns, which means more work on fair weather days.
Last year at this point, there had been four canceled work days. This year, there have been eight.
“It’s a bigger annoyance than anything else,” he said.
On the bright side, the recent rains mean more pruning and mowing. “They’re growing just as hard now as at Memorial Day,” he said.
Still, Slenker is confident that anyone looking for seasonal work this summer will still find it, even if the economy is slow and the weather is subpar.
“They have to be flexible and they have to keep looking,” he said. “The people who find opportunities are the ones who look for them.”
If the cooler weather means less business for beaches and waterfront restaurants, it means more for other attractions.
Donna Fernandes, president of the Buffalo Zoo, said the cooler temperatures have helped increase attendance over last year. Many of the animals that hide in the shade when temperatures spike into the 80s have instead been out and about.
“It’s too cool to go to the beach, but temperatures in the 60s make for great viewing weather,” she said.
Thursday night was the first since June 4 that no rain was recorded at the weather service, a big help for the Thursday at the Square concert series. Michael T. Schmand, executive director of Buffalo Place, said he remains optimistic about the remainder of the concerts.
“You can’t look back and think about what it could have been,” Schmand said. “You have to look forward.”
Even though rain can drive attendance down 40 percent, Schmand said many hearty concertgoers have still made it out each week.
“In Buffalo, people just want to get out,” he said.
All hope is not lost for the rest of the summer. Today will feature sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s. A cold front brings the threat of rain Saturday, followed by dry weather Sunday through Tuesday.
McLaughlin said the upper-level low-pressure system responsible for the weeks of unsettled weather throughout the Northeast is finally lifting out of the region.
The weather has been less than ideal, but far better than other Northeastern cities. McLaughlin said many eastern seaboard locales are having their worst summer in 50 years. Boston received only 27 percent of its total possible June sunshine.
“These numbers are the best in the Northeast, if you can believe it,” he said of Buffalo’s weather data.
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