Winter weather leaves financial impact on Arkansas businesses

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The recent winter storm and lingering icy conditions in the shade have been keeping lots of Arkansans cooped up, but, luckily, not everybody. 

Some local businesses are open and hoping to serve you if you venture out. This week, the winter weather has also forced them to stay home. 

It’s already a slow time of year for some businesses and with two impactful winter storms on top of that, they’re in need of your support. 

As the thaw continues, more businesses have reopened, like Bread, Cheese, Wine (BCW) in Little Rock’s SoMa neighborhood. 

“We had to close down Tuesday night and all day Wednesday,” said Nathan Miller, the owner of BCW.

While they opened back up on Thursday, Miller said they’ve been playing catch-up to make up for lost business. 

“For any small business, it’s frustrating, because, you know, every time we have to close on a day of business, we might as well be writing a check for thousands of dollars,” Miller described.

Even though Miller said it was the best decision to keep his employees safe, he acknowledged that it put some of them in a tough spot. 

“They’re losing hours, they’re losing tips, they’re losing direct income for sure,” he added.

Though they can make up those hours at a later time. 

“We try to find ways to compensate them for those lost wages, for sure, but it’s just one of those things any small business is just it’s a big hit,” he said.

It was a similar story over at Nexus Coffee and Creative. 

“It wasn’t our usual hours every day, but we were able to capture people who were downtown already, who could walk from where they live, or had to come downtown for work,” said Amy Counce, the owner of Nexus Coffee and Creative.

Counce explained how they are usually down about 20% in sales during the first two months of the year, and winter weather doesn’t help with that. 

However, the coffee shop has managed to open for some hours this week. 

“We were able to stay open some hours each day. A lot of that’s being creative about what hours are best,” she said.

Now both Counce and Miller are relying on the community to help them bounce back. 

“We’re thankful that they came in to see us, because every little bit counts, especially in a small business, every person walking in our doors, any time our doors swing open, that’s job security for our team,” she said.

Miller said the silver lining this time around is that the winter weather hit in the beginning of the week instead of near the weekend, so that’s a positive for some of the businesses out there.