Winter whiteouts are sending Halifax small businesses into the red

HALIFAX – A succession of winter wallops is putting small businesses in Halifax into the red and creating frustrations for small business owners.

Robert McKelvie, the owner of McKelvie’s restaurant, said the storms this winter have forced him to dip into his rainy day fund. He estimates he has lost tens of thousands of dollars in the last month.

“If you don’t take any cash in, there goes your cash flow,” he said.

“This month and a half has been extremely difficult. This last storm is the icing on the cake.”

READ MORE: Halifax Transit to offer limited free service; citywide parking ban continues

The stormy weather forced the restaurant to close Wednesday and it remained closed Thursday as the city continued to dig out.

He said many customers have probably been staying away from the downtown core because of the tricky streets and lack of parking.

READ MORE: Snowstorm makes navigating Halifax nearly impossible for residents

“If customers aren’t available, there’s not much we can do about it. Tomorrow, hopefully, it will be a better day,” he said.

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Dave Howlett, manager of Strange Adventures comic book store, decided to open the Halifax location of the comic book store on Thursday.

Howlett estimated the store has lost a week’s worth of sales because of all the storms. He is hoping to recoup the losses this summer when the weather is better and there is more foot traffic near the harbourfront. He also plans to use social media.

RELATED: Haligonians make the best out of a bad winter storm

Howlett said he sympathizes with crews clearing the peninsula but said he believes more could have been done to help small businesses during the winter, which is normally a slow season for stores.

“They let it get to the point where it was snow packed on top of snow packed on top of ice. If it was dealt with properly the first couple of snowfalls, I don’t think it would have been as bad as it is,” he said.

Over at Christopher Cromwell Hair Design, owner Chris Cromwell said he has lost thousands of dollars since the storms first started at the end of January.

Cromwell closed his storefront Wednesday but decided to open it Thursday because he originally had a fully booked schedule. However, the effects of the storm still lingered.

“The majority of the day basically cancelled because people couldn’t get out of their driveways or couldn’t get into the middle of the city,” he said.

He estimated that his sales go down 80 per cent during storm and post-storm days.

“It’s been really tough because of the storms but what are you supposed to do? All you can do is just get through the storm days and hope for the best,” he said.

Cromwell plans to recover his losses by working extra evening and weekend shifts.

However, he also questioned whether the municipality has done enough to help out downtown Halifax.

“Between the snow clearing and no salt going down on the roads and they’re very slippery, they’ve been dropping the ball,” he said.

During a press conference Thursday morning, Mayor Mike Savage acknowledged the focus of snow clearing right now is to re-open streets.