By Taylor Boyd
Due to the recent winter weather and icy road conditions, many businesses throughout the county have been closed, some for days.
Icy precipitation kicked off the weather in late January, with multiple snowfalls and frigid temperatures following soon after.
Poor Farmers’ Market and Concord Corner Store owner Felecia Shelor said both businesses essentially came to a grinding halt when the weather turned cold. However, Shelor felt like she had to keep Poor Farmer’s Market open to serve the community.
“We’re the only business in the community that sells diesel, and we have food in the deli, and we try to be there for the road crews, the local contractors, farmers, and people who have to be out,” she said.
Despite being one of the only businesses open in Meadows of Dan, Shelor said business was slow, with only about 40-50 customers each day.
“Many of those are the same people coming in more than once a day, like the VDOT crews,” she said of Virginia Department of Transportation crews working to clear the roads.
After a week of being closed, Concord reopened on Friday.
“That’s a problem because we have employees who need to make money. We keep that store open primarily because we need to keep our staff employed in the winter, so we have to open it back up when the roads are good enough,” she said.
Stuart Family Restaurant owner Terry Dalton said his business has seen about a 60 percent decline due to the weather.
“The biggest thing is at night, (with) people not coming out due to ice freezing back up,” he said.
Even breakfast and lunch hours are slower “because people are bound at home and not going to work.
“So not only do we lose the lunch crowd, but we lose the people that are at work, they’re actually at home now,” he said.
In addition, January typically is the slowest month, Dalton said, and added that Friday-Saturday are the restaurant’s biggest days. Because of the weather, the restaurant has been closed on some Fridays and Saturdays.
“When churches are closed, you lose your Sunday crowd too.” Even if churches are open, there are “not as many people going with this cold air, weather, and wind,” he said.
However, despite the conditions, Dalton noted that many of his regular customers are still coming in.
“Some of your seniors aren’t coming as much just because it is cold outside, and that does affect them as well,” he said.
After being closed the last week of January, Coffee Break owner Denny Alley said the restaurant was finally able to reopen on Feb. 3.
“We just weren’t able to get out of the house,” he said of the impromptu closure.
Alley said the Feb. 3 reopening was packed with many members of the Tuesday morning music crowd.
“All the guys showed up playing today, so we’ve had a good crowd. There’s not an open seat in the house,” he said.
While the weather kept a lot of people indoors, Alley said younger customers are more likely to venture out.
“The senior citizens tend to stay in. As a rule, in bad weather, the older people don’t tend to come out. They’re afraid they’ll fall and things like that,” Alley said.
While the snow hasn’t stopped Wood’s Cold Storage & Supply from opening, co-owner Johnnie Wood said business has slowed down a little bit.
“We have closed early and opened late some mornings, primarily because we have to do things on the farm, feeding cattle and so forth, before we open the store. So, it takes a little bit longer to feed with the cold and snow,” he said.
Wood estimated customer traffic has dropped by about half.
“People just aren’t out and moving around,” he said.
Clay & Twig, a Critz garden center, has been closed for over two weeks due to the winter conditions.
Jonathan Witt, owner, said he’s unable to set his products out because they’ll go bad in the weather.
“I’ve kind of lost a bit there. I’m currently trying to work on it. As far as climate control in the barn, I don’t have any way to heat it or cool it to keep my products” viable, he said.
While he intended to reopen late last week, Witt hopes to reopen later this week on Friday.
