Why stormy weather makes us panic… and purchase
The Northeast is facing snowstorm Nemo. Canceled flights, school closings, worries about shortages and power outages, and long lines in stores. We called up Jeff Klein, owner of Marshall’s Country Corner in Bernardston, Mass., to find out what his customers are up to.
“I am a store owner and I do count on the weather reports for business. Being Western Mass., snowstorms do affect us a little bit. This one obviously made a lot of people panic. People were coming out in droves thinking that we’ll be out of power for a bunch of days. In Western Mass., I think they take care of the roads pretty well. There are a lot of great plow drivers out there. We’re cleared up usually in 24 hours. So yeah, I’m pretty jaded,” say Klein.
Klein says people are buying the essentials — milk, bread, ice (!), batteries, flashlights, lots of food.
“There’s a lot of panic, which I don’t think is needed,” says Klein. “When the weather people report something this major, which is great 24 hours ahead of time, so people get ready so they don’t panic in an emergency, it definitely spurs the economy around here. But also, weathermen are only 50 percent right half the time, so right now how much do we really predict on snow.”
“I predict the next couple of days to be quite slow because everyone’s stocked up on their grocery goods. We’re selling a lot of food, so people won’t tend to grocery shop the next couple of days because they’re going to be so loaded up and full,” adds Klein.
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