Local Business Owners Feel The Effects Of A Brutal Winter

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- As we all recover from a tumultuous winter, for some the effects are quite serious.

The winter took an irreversible hit on some local businesses.

"It was apocalyptic in the sense that every time you thought we are through the worst of it, you'd get another blizzard, another snowfall, another terrible storm," said Mary Cassidy, owner of Maeve's Café in Northeast Minneapolis. "Things were quite a bit slower, people were unwilling to spend money, leave their house because it was so bad."

The weather made it easy to stay home.

"You had no desire to get out because it was too brutal so being in was more comfortable so I preferred to stay home," Maeve's customer Susan Kelzenberg said.

Maeve's business was down 40 percent this winter. The shop is far from alone.

"This weather, I don't think we've seen anything like it," said Susan Zdon owns Corazon Gift Stores in St. Paul and in southeast Minneapolis.

She says during February, the business was down as much as 90 percent.

"We were closed, but I ended up paying my part-time staff because I value them and I care about them so it was kind of its own kind of vortex," said Zdon.

One thing the business owners say hit so hard this winter was that so many of the storms hit on weekends.

"The running joke was this is every weekend. This is my bread and butter and every time you'd come back you'd get just pummeled again," said Cassidy.

Both business owners credit their regulars for keeping them afloat.

And hopefully, change is in the air.