Some Businesses Lose, Others Gain Thanks to Snowtober

Thanks to an early snowfall and massive power outages in town, some businesses have lost significant amounts of money while others have become "the place to go" to get warm, get a shower and use the internet.

Derek Delorey of in Drum Hill said the storm and the power outage has cost his business thousands of dollars.

Having lost power Saturday - and not getting it back until Tuesday - meant Moe Mondays were a no-go. Mondays are typically the busiest day of the week due to their lunch deals.

Moe's also had to turn down catering orders.

"On Monday we had to throw out several thousand dollars worth of food that was in our cooler," he said. "Although we got our power back Tuesday afternoon, we couldn't open right away. We had to wait for our power to come back on before we could place an order for a delivery to replace what we lost."

Delorey said Moe's got their food shipments at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

"We then had to start from scratch to get everything ready to open for lunch.
Normally, we open at 11 a.m. but ... that was not going to be possible.  We were able to have everything ready to open at 11:45 a.m. this morning, just in time for our lunch rush," he said. "We had a lot of people come in today saying that they needed their Moe's fix."

Anna Bayramshian, co-owner of and blogger for , said the lack of power is "unacceptable."

"Sunday came and we all hoped things would be back to normal by Monday. We wrote off Sunday and moved on. Monday came and no power all day. I have clients and staff who have kids, folks in nursing homes and all the businesses in Drum Hill were without power through Monday night," she said.

Jazzercise finally got power at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. The damage in terms of money loss was relatively minimal, Bayramshian said.

"That's days from the storm. You knew a week ago that we had a bad storm coming, it was all over TV news. Do they not watch it?" Bayramshian asked. "I really worry more about my instructors/staff who have lost whole food orders in their fridge/freezers. I also have one instructor with a sick child at home now, no power since Saturday as well."

Bayramshian said Jazzercise neighbors and lost all their food in their freezers. She hopes someone out there will listen.

"I lived in Montana and we never lost power and our storms were ten times this bad... it's a monopoly, so we have no choice ... It makes no sense and I'm livid. I'm contacting our state reps, senators and complaining to anyone who will listen," she said.

Lisa Bougoulas, owner of Agway and Chelmsford Patch blogger, said the store has lost quite a bit of business due to the power outage. The store finally got power back Wednesday night.

"We've actually lost quite a bit of business because now we're reduced to cash only," she said. "Most people really don't carry cash anymore - just credit or debit cards. In the dark, no phones, no electricity. It's been very frustrating for us."

Meanwhile, the past few days have been busy ones for the as residents flocked there to use power and the internet.

At on Chelmsford Street, classes were cancelled from Monday to Tuesday afternoon. Morning classes Wednesday were cancelled but Wednesday evening classes were still on.

Many of our Patch readers without power have said they are going out to eat more, or they're going to The Java Room or Starbucks to charge phones and use laptops. In your opinion, which businesses are the winners or the losers of Snowtober? Let us know in the comments.