As the cleanup from Sunday’s snowstorm continues, the aftermath looks different from one small business to the next.
The storm dumped nine inches of snow on Upper Chichester, Delaware County. Some businesses in the township are now seeing a surge in customers. At A&R Small Engine Repair on Chichester Avenue, mechanics are working overtime to keep up with demand as customers rushed to get equipment fixed.
“Between Thursday and today, we’ve probably fixed over 300 snow blowers,” Albert Billinger, owner of A&R Small Engine Repair, said. “There’s only two mechanics, and my nephew helps with the phone and my sister helps with the phone, so we are a smaller shop.”
Billinger said many snow blowers aren’t used regularly, and old gas left in the tanks can go bad over time. Much of the work at his shop involves cleaning the carburetors. He added that heavy, icy snow is causing belts to burn out and cables to freeze and break.
At Ogden Supply on Naamans Creek Road, ice scrapers have been flying off the shelves. While many winter supplies are out of stock, salt remains available, but is limited to two 50-pound bags per customer.
“The big boxes run out of their rock salt or snow shovels, and then they [customers] come to the little mom and pop that’s still hanging on on the corner, and that’s us,” Frank Sill, owner of Ogden Supply, said. “On Facebook, we’re very popular right now as the place to get it [salt], but that’s not going to last much longer.”
Other businesses, however, were left struggling. Quanear Brown, a manager at Chickos Chicken on Chichester Avenue, said the restaurant went three days without any customers.
“It definitely hit us hard,” Brown said. “Nobody ordered. Door Dash was down. Uber Eats was down. All the online services were down as well, so we also packed it up for the day and left early on Tuesday.”
Brown estimates the restaurant lost up to $4,000 in revenue because of the storm.
Down the street at Planet Green Thrift Store on Chichester Avenue, the stop was forced to close for two days. Parking remains a challenge.
“Usually, we have parking for six cars,” Patti Pavone, associate at Planet Green, said. “When I came in yesterday morning, there were only three spots shoveled.”
Pavone noted one unexpected silver lining: Donations are up. Many residents used the storm as an opportunity to clean out their homes, bringing in extra clothing, purses, suitcases and other items.
