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Snowblowers need fixing, ice cream left to warmer days

Business slows on heaviest snow day of the season
Nick Spence, left and Jennifer Craig clear snow from the driveway of The Marketing Department Tuesday morning along 7th Avenue near Park Elementary School. The winter storm forced the closure of many area schools.

Like unlucky mountain climbers marooned atop K2, Tuesday’s snowstorm left many Durango businesses stranded in a cold, lonely and unforgiving environment.

For most of Tuesday, the AT&T store near Walmart – usually packed with shoppers demanding iPhones – saw little foot traffic, and employees struggled to serve their few customers as the store’s systems repeatedly went down.

Rice Monkeys, a Main Avenue Asian food joint, shuttered for the day, as did Baskin-Robbins. In a note hanging on Baskin-Robbins’ door, management attributed the closure to bad road conditions – not plummeting demand for ice cream.

Throughout the morning, Main Avenue was nearly empty. For most of the business day, the only people braving Durango’s biggest commercial thoroughfare was a smattering of hunched-over shopkeepers shoveling snow from their doorways.

Craig Allison with Brown’s Shoe Fit Co. said though Main Avenue has far fewer people, all was not lost.

“Hopefully, people will come in to buy boots. But honestly, there’s not a whole lot left in stock,” he said.

To make sure customers could enter, he made sure the sidewalk stayed shovelled.

Outside May Palace Restaurant, the Sisyphean task fell to Mauricio Ruiz, who battled snow with good cheer, saying he didn’t think the roads were too dangerous.

“You just have to be cautious,” he said.

As he spoke, across the street, a woman slipped on pavement and fell, arms and limbs askew, into a snowbank.

Jim Kolb, owner of Durango Equipment Co., said its phone had been constantly ringing.

“We’re getting quite a few calls about broken down snowblowers from people who waited till the last minute to start their snowblowers and find out they don’t start,” he said.

He said he expected the pace of business to remain busier than usual in the coming days as people try to deal with wet snow.

“Snowblowers don’t do a good job with wet snow because the snorkel gets clogged up,” he said.

Kolb said the most important step in maintaining the integrity of a snowblower must be taken at the end of winter.

“If people don’t put fuel stabilizer in their snowblowers or drain them dry, then whatever gasoline was in the tank or bow of the carburetor generally starts to separate until there almost becomes a varnish at the bottom of the carburetor. Then it won’t run,” he said.

A handful of local vendors also saw snowstorm booms.

At Kroegers Ace Hardware, Lisa McIntyre said, for weeks, the only people buying snow gear had been elderly people and longtime residents “who’ve lived here forever.” Yet after the doors opened Tuesday morning, scores of panicked shoppers had descended on Kroeger’s aisles, desperate to locate snow shovels.

Employee Sabrina Lopez said she thought she had sold a snow shovel to “every other person who’s walked in.” Other merchandise likewise basked in shoppers’ newfound appreciation. In comparison to last week, they said sales of sleds and various ice melts had skyrocketed.

Other downtown entrepreneurs played up the relationship between their wares and snowstorm survival, even when that relationship was not immediately obvious. On Main Avenue, Root and Branch Medicine, an acupuncture and Oriental medicine clinic, seized on the inclement weather, putting up a sandwich sign on the sidewalk that read: “Slip ––> Fall ––> Ouch ––> Acupuncture.”

At Wagon Wheel Liquors, Robert Jason Ward said miraculously, trade had remained steady. His colleague Shana Maslak said customers were disproportionately purchasing Fireball, a popular cinnamon whiskey.

Though with schools closed and many working Durango parents faced a child care crisis, Ward said parents buying spirits seemed secure in their baby-sitting arrangements, saying only one customer had come in with a tyke in tow.

cmcallister@durangoherald.com

Jan 12, 2015
Storm begins to clear out


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