Business & Tech

Village Center Back in Business After Power Outage

Day's closure cost small businesses in the downtown district thousands of dollars.

Thursday was eerily quiet in the Glendora Village Center, as shops in the city’s downtown district closed due to a powerful wind storm that knocked power out through the entire block. But as the power was restored by Friday morning, business owners were eager to try to recoup the money lost in Thursday’s forced closure.

Gayl Swinehart, Business Improvement District board member and owner of , estimated the average loss for each business in the Village to be around $3,000.

“For a small business like us, that’s huge,” Swinehart said.

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With the holiday shopping season in full swing, most businesses depend on the end of the year returns.

In gift shop , no phone access or electricity to make transactions left the employees with nothing much to do but close early.

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“This is definitely the moneymaking season for Lorisa Gardens,” said Office Manager Jo Anne Klamut. “We decorate homes for the holidays, so the owners were still making money. But as far as the storefront goes…all we could do was watch it.”

Swinehart said he opened his music shop briefly on Thursday evening, making transactions with manual charge slips in the dark with flashlights.

But restaurants, the most successful businesses in the downtown district, did not have the same option.

With no access to electricity or hot water, restaurants closed for the day. Coffee shop closed by 8 a.m. on Thursday. Aside from lost sales, restaurants scrambled to save produce and food.

Owner John Otten and employees rushed to move three trucks full of food and produce to a working refrigerated storage unit.

“Working with food, it’s time sensitive, and luckily it wasn’t a very hot day. So we didn’t lose as much of products,” said Otten. “But when you factor in the lost sales, operation costs and our employees, it is a big hit.”

Otten estimated his restaurant lost about $2,500 in the day’s closure.

“It’s tough,” Otten said. “This is the busiest time of year for retail and we depend on that. Taking a forced day off hurts, because rent doesn’t take a day off.”


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