Where's the snow? Lack of flakes hurting business

ALLENDALE, Mich. (WZZM) - Snow blowers and shovels are collecting cobwebs at local shops because of the lack of snow this season.
By this time, we should have had a total of 31.4 inches of snow. Instead, we've only had 7.6. We talked to a few nearby hardware stores, including Menard's, Rylee's, and True Value, and they all tell us the same; this has hurt their winter business.
"We have two types of customers," said Chad Ayers, a manager of the Allendale True Value. "The planner...they have a little more disposable income and they will typically buy between September and December. They're typically buying bigger, two-stage, higher-dollar snow blowers. Then we have the other type of customer who totally banks on whether or not we get snow, and that's where we sell the single stage snow blowers." 

Just because most of the snow blowers aren't selling, it doesn't mean you're going to be able to find many on clearance. Snow blower manufacturers purposely don't put out new models each year, so they can carry over old models from the year before if there isn't a lot of snow, which is what will happen to these if they don't sell within the next few weeks.


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