It is often fairly rare for adverse weather to cause a retail location to shut, but many shops were forced to close or offer a limited array of services following freezing temperatures, snowy blizzards and ice.

Anything that can cause a shop to close is not good for one’s bottom line, but with preparedness, professional store maintenance services and clear communication with your customers, you can get back up and running sooner than you may think.

Take Stock Of People, Buildings And Stock

You need three key elements to run a retail store: people, a safe location to sell and inventory to sell, in that order of importance.

Whilst you do not need the “jump teams” that are part of the infamous Waffle House Index, you should as a business owner get in touch with all of your employees, make sure they are okay, make sure they are not stranded and see if they have the ability to get to work.

This will help set up contingency rotas to ensure you can open at all.

Appear Open For Business

Once you reach your retail location, clear a path to ensure that people can reach you. This could require gritting materials, salt, shovels or anything necessary to make it clear from the frontage that you are open for business.

If you need to hang up a sign saying “I assure you we are open” similar to the 1994 film Clerks, it might not provide the right impression to customers.

Be Proactive With Communication

Customers may not even be aware you are open and will not risk the trip, so make sure that you make clear through as many local and social media channels as you have available that you are open and ready for business, regardless of the weather or the condition of other nearby businesses.