The ice storm and gridlock that crippled metro Atlanta will likely cost businesses and individuals in the hundreds of millions – if not billions – of dollars, based on economic models and past events.
Some businesses lose sales and productivity permanently or face transportation-related costs, while hourly workers lose wages. Yet some consumer spending is simply shifted to another time, and certain businesses may even see a windfall.
“The economic impacts remain the same, but the distribution changes,” said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University.
Some spending will be made up: if you planned a shopping trip for a specific item, you’ll probably still make the purchase, just a little later than planned. On the other hand, if you usually eat lunch at a restaurant near your office, you’re not going to eat two lunches the next day you go to work.
Workers paid by the hour or those who depend on tips will take a loss, Dhawan said. “That’s where it really bites.”
Spending on auto-related expenses, from towing to bodywork, will get a bump, Dhawan said, adding, “Even auto purchases, later, will show a pick-up.”
Here’s how a few sectors are affected:
Retailers
Many stores, including most major malls, remained closed Wednesday. That costs merchants sales, especially from impulse purchases by browsers, and it costs employees some of their wages.
Gov. Nathan Deal, who announced state government will be closed Thursday, urged businesses to do the same so as to keep traffic down. As of late Wednesday, area malls that closed Wednesday had not said whether they will remain closed on Thursday.
Other major retailers opened for at least part of the day Wednesday. A Walmart Supercenter on Howell Mill Road in Atlanta opened around noon but an employee answering the phone said it had not been decided for how long.
Home Depot, meanwhile, earned some goodwill by keeping more than a dozen locations open overnight Tuesday to provide shelter for stranded motorists. Kroger reportedly cooked breakfasts for some stranded customers.
Hotels
You’d think metro Atlanta’s hotels would see big business from stranded motorists or office workers who couldn’t make it home, but many were already full with conventioneers.
Niles Harris, general manager of the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel on Courtland Street, said more than 25,000 people in town for the annual International Production & Processing Expo filled many of its rooms and other hotels in the downtown area. The convention, which combines previous separate poultry, feed and meat expos, ends Thursday.
Harris said the few rooms that might have been available were quickly snapped up by stranded motorists or those who couldn’t get flights out of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Restaurants
Eateries that were open did brisk business. Several Waffle House locations said business had been heavy since Tuesday with some people waiting out the treacherous conditions with waffles, bacon and coffee. All of the locations contacted said they were too busy to talk. According to AJC food writer John Kessler, bars, pubs and taverns that serve food were most likely to stay open, in addition to some restaurant chains.
Wrecker services
Towing companies were frustrated that the gridlock kept them from getting to vehicles that were stuck or out of gas.
Debbie Mau, operations manager at Northside Towing, said the company could respond to only four calls from 12:30 until 9 p.m. Tuesday because it didn’t have tire chains for smaller wreckers or flatbed wreckers that could make it to the motorists.
Mau said four other “mom-and-pop” companies she talked with had the same trouble. Even if wreckers reached a motorist, they had trouble maneuvering to retrieve the vehicle.
“We got over 50 or 60 requests,” she said. “People were hanging up way before I could get to them.” Northside normally responds to about 30 calls a day this time of year.
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