Record snowfalls have buried profits for hundreds of Washington-area businesses — not to mention federal and local government agencies. But for some, all that white has translated to more green.
“A lot of area businesses couldn’t afford to wipe a week off the map six weeks into the year,” said Jim Dinegar, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade.
Historic accumulations of snow have caused thousands of businesses and government agencies across Washington to shut down, many for days at a time.
Barbara Lang, president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, said the hospitality industry would be especially hard hit.
“The amount of money that businesses are losing is in the millions,” Lang said, adding that hotels, restaurants and bars in the District — those businesses that rely on consistent consumer traffic — had suffered irretrievable losses.
» $100 million: Cost, per day, in productivity and other losses when federal agencies shut down. So far this winter, the government has been closed for five-and-half days.
» 3 million: Number of people employed in the greater Washington area.
» 300,000: Approximate number of federal government employees in the area, not including Postal Service workers.
“Quite frankly, those businesses won’t be able to make that [lost revenue] back,” Lang said.
“There are some sectors like travel and tourism that will be adversely affected, and those are pretty significant in this area,” said Anthony Yezer, an economics professor at George Washington University.
The snowstorms also caused a four-day shutdown of the federal government, which cost taxpayers $100 million per day in productivity and other losses, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Not to mention all the money the government workers didn’t spend on Starbucks coffee, lunches, happy hours or runs to the nearest CVS.
But while many are suffering, some businesses found the blizzards to be more economic boon than bust.
“Business has been unbelievable this week,” said Kelly DiNardo, owner of the Past Tense yoga studio in D.C.’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. DiNardo estimated profits rose almost 75 percent during the latest storm.
“I think people were just feeling stir crazy, and we were one of the few places that was open throughout the whole mess,” she said.
Some resilient neighborhood bars and restaurants also reaped the benefits of cabin fever — and weak-kneed competition.
“Most restaurants stayed closed, so that gave us an edge,” said Art Dougherty, owner of the Crystal City Sports Pub. “Anyone that did want to go out, they had to come to us.”
Dougherty said business was up between 20 and 30 percent for the week.
