WSET.com - ABC13Lack of Snow Affecting Business in Local Hardware Stores

Reporter: David Tate

Roanoke, VA - While it felt a bit like winter over the weekend, there is still no real snow to speak of this winter, and that likely means low to no sales of winter essentials.

A lot of stores around town are sitting on a bunch of winter inventory, and store owners say they don't have the luxury of waiting for a storm. They have to have it all ready to go whether it snows or not.

Charlie Overstreet has been in the hardware business all his life and knows all too well that you can count on the weather to affect sales, sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a bad way.

"We're always one snow in advance. So we're ready for the snow if it happens. We cross our fingers and hope it happens, but if it doesn't we're still ready when it does," said Overstreet, whose family owns Northwest TrueValue Hardware.

On the flipside, the recent cold front has pushed sales on heaters and propane. But that isn't helping move the four S's of winter: Sleds, salt, shovels and seed.

"Bird seed still sells, but sleds, shovels and salt do not sell when it doesn't snow," said Overstreet.

He says that poses another problem if things don't change.

"We have to take all our stuff that we put in the store and find places hidden in the store to put it until next year when maybe it will snow again," he said.

It's not quite the same problem for large, national chains like Lowe's. While they also have plenty of snow related inventory just sitting around, their national distribution system shifts inventory away from places that aren't getting snow, like Roanoke, to places that may be getting record snow this year, like Washington State. So the impact isn't as noticeable.

What is the same for both big business and mom and pop stores is that while seasonal sales always help, they don't make or break the bottom line.

"Weather means the difference between another good year and a great year," said Overstreet.

Lowe's officials were unable to talk how the mild weather affects their sales because they are in a quiet period leading into an earnings release later this month. However they did say their big time of the year is in spring when people are doing home improvements. So it will be interesting to see what those sales have been considering it's been spring-like across much of the country all winter long.