CHICAGO — Retailers from Chicago to Dallas said winter storms that passed through their regions this weekend failed to keep shoppers away for too long.
Six inches of snow resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of flights at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, where a cargo plane skidded off a runway Friday. Freezing rain made driving treacherous and some areas saw as much as 18 inches of snow. Power outages struck a half-million customers in Missouri and Illinois, and as of Sunday more than 380,000 customers were still without heat, according to utility company Ameren.
Louis Amendola, executive vice president of merchandising at Brooks Brothers, which operates several Chicago-area stores, dismissed concerns about one storm significantly impacting overall holiday sales. “Historically, it has no impact long term on Christmas selling,” said Amendola. “If someone can’t buy on a Monday because of bad weather, they go out on Tuesday or Wednesday.”
In Dallas, clear skies and warmer temperatures returned over the weekend.
“We were very busy on Wednesday and again on Friday,” said Victoria Johnson, manager of Blinc, a women’s contemporary store in Plano, Tex. “Thursday was our only slow day, as women didn’t want to risk driving on potentially slick roads.”
Shoppers were undeterred at Friction, a women’s store near downtown Dallas. “The West Village neighborhood has thousands of residents who can easily walk to the stores if they don’t want to drive or if the weather is too bad,” said Chad Gilliland, manager and buyer.
The North Face selling supervisor Anthony Zembrodt arrived at his Gold Coast store to find shoppers lined up outside Friday morning. “This is our bread-and-butter,” he said, noting the last significant cold snap hit back in October.
Caryn Torres, senior marketing manager at Chicago’s Water Tower Place on Michigan Avenue, said mall traffic was not noticeably affected. “Forty-four percent of our shoppers are local residents, so even with the snow, ice and traffic delays, our shoppers are able to get here,” Torres said. On Saturday, 100 motor coaches delivered tourist shoppers to the mall, a “healthy” figure, she said.