No business like snow business for ‘packed’ outdoor shops
THERE’S no business like snow business for outdoor retailers, as customers stock up on sleighs, shoe spikes and even gas stoves.
At Banba Toymaster, on Mary Street in Dublin’s city centre, manager Maurice Doyle told how Winter Lightning sleighs costing €18 were flying out the door.
He revealed he originally had six of them in stock in the shop, which were left over from the 2010 heavy snowfall, and they were all sold by Monday evening.
He went to the warehouse and got 60 more of them, and 18 were already sold within the first two hours of them going on sale yesterday.
Mr Doyle said that people are preparing to enjoy the snow because “it doesn’t happen that often”.
Outdoor shops are also reaping the benefits of the unseasonably cold snap, as many of the main street stores are in ‘spring-summer mode’ and are out of winter stock like hats and gloves.
Niall Kenny, manager of the Outdoor Adventure Store on Upper Liffey Street, Dublin, said: “People are coming in looking for hats, scarves and gloves, and they are looking for heavy jackets.”
The shop was also selling a lot of the “spikes” that fit over normal shoes or hiking boots, which dig into the ground and prevent people from slipping, ranging from €12.95 up to €35, he said.
Meanwhile, Ben Doyle,
managing director of Ramblers Way on Mary Street, Dublin, predicted that: “When the snow hits the ground, we will be jammers.
“In 2010, we sold 250 pairs of boots a day,” he said.
The well-known shop would sell about 175 to 200 pairs of boots a week normally. “So we will sell that amount, when it snows, in a day,” he revealed.
He said the shop was packed yesterday morning.