GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — With many West Michiganders receiving snow levels that may have been higher than expected, some are now stocking up for more winter weather.
Describing the difference as night and day from a week ago, a West Michigan hardware store manager said the sales of snow shovels, brushes and ice melt sharply increased Friday.
“We went from 75 degrees, and we were picking up leaves, and now we're going a totally different direction to freezing temperature,” said Great Lakes ACE Hardware store manager Aaron Rayborn.
“It's quite as quite a tax on our staff, that's for sure. We had to totally switch our entire store layout from bags and tags and city rakes and all of those things over to snow shovels.”
Rayborn expects 95 percent of sales today to stem directly from their snow equipment.
“It's the very first snowfall of the year, so I think people weren't exactly prepared this early to have such a heavy dumping,” he said. “I think people are kind of caught off guard a little bit. And so they're stocking up today.
The winter storm conditions are set to end after Sunday. Still, the ongoing snow was unexpected, Rayborn said.
“It's very early in the year to get this much snow this quickly –and then to stick around as long as it's going to do,” he said. “I know it's gonna be a little bit warmer next week, but right now we're stuck with it for a little bit.”
Though the number of shoppers looking for snow-related equipment was impressive to him, showing 13 On Your Side a truck he was unloading with the same supplies going out the door, Rayborn said inventory is doing good too.
“Great Lakes ACE has been in this neighborhood for 75-plus years,” Rayborn said. “I'm not going to fail this year, that's for sure.”
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