A chimney sweep with a little smudge of soot across the face? Not this year.
Service calls are down 30 percent at Clean Sweeps in Clarklake, Mich., according to co-owner Cheryl Slagle, who had to cut the hours of her four technicians as a result. No chill in the air means no fire in the hearth – and no cash in the till for this company or others in Michigan like it.
"What's happened is people obviously are not burning like they do when it's below freezing, using the fireplace 24 hours a day, six or seven days a week. It's cut back on maintenance," Slagle said. "We've had to get a little creative with marketing."
The mild winter has affected not just the ski resorts and snowmobile dealerships, but also the tertiary businesses that depend on cold and snow to thrive. They include shoeshines, pizzerias, hot chocolate companies, and a whole slew of businesses that rely on a real winter for real dollars.
"We find ourselves preparing for something that's not there, a lot of money and a lot of time invested that you're not getting out of the year," he said.
Snow removal accounts for 30 percent of his business and his plowing work was down 40 percent this winter. He plans to focus on the other 70 percent now.
"Snow is a gamble and there's no guarantee in it," Marino said. "We just try to re-evaluate in the spring, try to gear up and make the spring as busy and put in as much as we can as early as we can."
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