[BeauDodson]

Wonder how many people remember this. Was doing a search for some info on a NE Snow Event and this popped up.




'Terrorist weathermen' do major snow job on NE sales

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m319..._35/ai_72986736

'Terrorist weathermen' do major snow job on NE sales
Nation's Restaurant News, March 19, 2001 by Paul Frumkin

Storm's record hype does more damage than snowfall

By 3:30 p.m. on Monday, March 5, Donna Purnomo was ready to throw in the towel. Her Bumpers Cafe in Albany, N.Y., had taken in $163 in the amount of time it usually was able to generate sales of $1,600.

Since the week before, weather forecasters had been warning that a blizzard of crippling proportions was set to pound the Northeast back into the ice age. But even as Purnomo was locking the door behind her late that afternoon, only a few inches of fresh snow lay on the ground.

On her way out she took a moment to tape a sign to the door. It read: "Due to the terrorist weathermen's storm hype, we're forced to close early for lack of warm bodies."

Purnomo explained, "We paid the price even before we got hit."

As schools and businesses across the Northeast shut down and frightened residents cleaned out their local supermarkets in anticipation of "the mother of all storms," restaurateurs found themselves suffering severe financial losses -- more from the storm's record hype than from the snow-fall itself.

While the late-season Nor'easter that moved across the East Coast eventually gave the snowplows something to clean up in parts of New England, upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania, many operators agreed that the storm's advance publicity seriously misled many people about what to expect.

The slow-moving storm -- which was scheduled to begin pummeling the mid-Atlantic and New England states on the morning of March 5 - initially was ballyhooed by forecasters as one that would rival the historic blizzard of 1888. They warned of snow accumulations that would total more than 2 feet and gale-force winds that would push drifts even higher. But by the end of the first day, much of the precipitation had fallen as freezing rain.

Nevertheless, residents from Washington, D.C., to Maine already had hunkered down in their homes for a long siege.

"I'm furious about all of the hype," said Roger Berkowitz, president and chief executive of Legal Seafoods Inc., based in Allston, Mass. "The media created panic and undue worry.

"It was particularly bad on Monday, when everyone was predicting all of the snow, and [Massachusetts and Boston] declared a snow emergency," he continued. "We ended up getting three to four inches of snow [Monday], and retail businesses suffered greatly It was a wasted day."

In contrast, by the end of the day Tuesday, when 15 to 20 inches of snow had fallen in Boston's western suburbs, business at Legal Seafoods' 11 area restaurants already had begun to pick up.

"Monday's business was off 80 percent, but then it began to get progressively better," Berkowitz said. "The plows were out in force. By Wednesday business was only down by about 15 percent."

Other area restaurateurs told similar tales. Rich Rosenthal, president of Max Restaurant Group in Hartford, Conn., reported that business was a disaster, particularly after Gov. John Rowland went on television Sunday evening, warning everyone to stay at home and closing highways to tractor-trailer traffic.

"We closed all four restaurants on Monday, and we never close," Rosenthal said. "We finally opened back up for dinner Tuesday night, when the snow was actually worse. I think over the two-day period, we got about 14 inches. But we lost $80,000 in sales for the four restaurants.

"Business was hit harder than it should have been," he said. "The governor and forecasters made the whole state panic."

Dick Grotton, executive vice president of the Maine Restaurant Association in Augusta, said many restaurants were forced to close because employees did not come to work. "If [servers] sense they're not going to make any tips, they don't want to show up," he said. "Weather forecasters have a responsibility, but this time they got caught up in their own hype science."

Jack Crawford, president of the Maine Course Hospitality Group in Freeport, said business for the two days at his restaurants in Maine and New Hampshire was off 40 percent to 50 percent. "The forecasts called for three feet of snow," he said. "We ended up getting less than half of that. But the severity of the forecast caused people to change their plans on day one. It was a two-day loss where it should have just been one day."

Linda Fondulas of Hemingway's Restaurant in Killington, Vt., observed that people stayed at home for the two days, even though Killington is one of the Northeast's top skiing areas. But since Hemingway's is closed on Mondays and Thesdays in March, business didn't suffer from the storm.

Still, she added, ever since the advent of the Weather Channel, travel to the ski area has been affected. "People used to book a week ahead," she said. "Now everyone waits to the last minute."

Even in the New York City area, where much of the precipitation fell as rain, and snow accumulations did not get above 10 inches, business was impacted. Wayne Norbitz, president of Westbury, N.Y.-based Nathan's Famous, said the chain's 17 outlets in the metropolitan area encountered a drop-off in business of about 9.5 percent for the Sunday-through-Tuesday period.

"And during the previous four weeks, business had been up 6.5 percent," Norbitz said. "There was just so much publicity people didn't go out to eat, even when the weather turned out to be much milder than anticipated."

Not all restaurant business in the Northeast hit the skids during the recent storm, however. David Bonsick, executive vice president and chief executive of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association in Harrisburg, Pa., said restaurants in the southern half of the state registered little impact.

"The western part of the state got maybe six inches, while the Harrisburg-to-Philadelphia area got two to three inches," he said. "They may have felt something, but certainly not as much as if the snow had actually come."

Tom Meyer, vice president of restaurant development for the Washington, D.C.-based Clyde's Restaurant Group, reported "little drop-off" during the two-day storm. "It was a little rainy here, but nothing unseasonable for us," he said. "It really didn't affect us."

However, he quipped, "I'm a conspiracy theorist at heart. I think the weather guys are in cahoots with the grocery guys."

[Noreaster07]

ShadowAngel, on Jan 30 2007, 11:24 PM, said:

Wonder how many people remember this. Was doing a search for some info on a NE Snow Event and this popped up.
'Terrorist weathermen' do major snow job on NE sales

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m319..._35/ai_72986736

'Terrorist weathermen' do major snow job on NE sales
Nation's Restaurant News, March 19, 2001 by Paul Frumkin

Storm's record hype does more damage than snowfall

By 3:30 p.m. on Monday, March 5, Donna Purnomo was ready to throw in the towel. Her Bumpers Cafe in Albany, N.Y., had taken in $163 in the amount of time it usually was able to generate sales of $1,600.

Since the week before, weather forecasters had been warning that a blizzard of crippling proportions was set to pound the Northeast back into the ice age. But even as Purnomo was locking the door behind her late that afternoon, only a few inches of fresh snow lay on the ground.

On her way out she took a moment to tape a sign to the door. It read: "Due to the terrorist weathermen's storm hype, we're forced to close early for lack of warm bodies."

Purnomo explained, "We paid the price even before we got hit."

As schools and businesses across the Northeast shut down and frightened residents cleaned out their local supermarkets in anticipation of "the mother of all storms," restaurateurs found themselves suffering severe financial losses -- more from the storm's record hype than from the snow-fall itself.

While the late-season Nor'easter that moved across the East Coast eventually gave the snowplows something to clean up in parts of New England, upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania, many operators agreed that the storm's advance publicity seriously misled many people about what to expect.

The slow-moving storm -- which was scheduled to begin pummeling the mid-Atlantic and New England states on the morning of March 5 - initially was ballyhooed by forecasters as one that would rival the historic blizzard of 1888. They warned of snow accumulations that would total more than 2 feet and gale-force winds that would push drifts even higher. But by the end of the first day, much of the precipitation had fallen as freezing rain.

Nevertheless, residents from Washington, D.C., to Maine already had hunkered down in their homes for a long siege.

"I'm furious about all of the hype," said Roger Berkowitz, president and chief executive of Legal Seafoods Inc., based in Allston, Mass. "The media created panic and undue worry.

"It was particularly bad on Monday, when everyone was predicting all of the snow, and [Massachusetts and Boston] declared a snow emergency," he continued. "We ended up getting three to four inches of snow [Monday], and retail businesses suffered greatly It was a wasted day."

In contrast, by the end of the day Tuesday, when 15 to 20 inches of snow had fallen in Boston's western suburbs, business at Legal Seafoods' 11 area restaurants already had begun to pick up.

"Monday's business was off 80 percent, but then it began to get progressively better," Berkowitz said. "The plows were out in force. By Wednesday business was only down by about 15 percent."

Other area restaurateurs told similar tales. Rich Rosenthal, president of Max Restaurant Group in Hartford, Conn., reported that business was a disaster, particularly after Gov. John Rowland went on television Sunday evening, warning everyone to stay at home and closing highways to tractor-trailer traffic.

"We closed all four restaurants on Monday, and we never close," Rosenthal said. "We finally opened back up for dinner Tuesday night, when the snow was actually worse. I think over the two-day period, we got about 14 inches. But we lost $80,000 in sales for the four restaurants.

"Business was hit harder than it should have been," he said. "The governor and forecasters made the whole state panic."

Dick Grotton, executive vice president of the Maine Restaurant Association in Augusta, said many restaurants were forced to close because employees did not come to work. "If [servers] sense they're not going to make any tips, they don't want to show up," he said. "Weather forecasters have a responsibility, but this time they got caught up in their own hype science."

Jack Crawford, president of the Maine Course Hospitality Group in Freeport, said business for the two days at his restaurants in Maine and New Hampshire was off 40 percent to 50 percent. "The forecasts called for three feet of snow," he said. "We ended up getting less than half of that. But the severity of the forecast caused people to change their plans on day one. It was a two-day loss where it should have just been one day."

Linda Fondulas of Hemingway's Restaurant in Killington, Vt., observed that people stayed at home for the two days, even though Killington is one of the Northeast's top skiing areas. But since Hemingway's is closed on Mondays and Thesdays in March, business didn't suffer from the storm.

Still, she added, ever since the advent of the Weather Channel, travel to the ski area has been affected. "People used to book a week ahead," she said. "Now everyone waits to the last minute."

Even in the New York City area, where much of the precipitation fell as rain, and snow accumulations did not get above 10 inches, business was impacted. Wayne Norbitz, president of Westbury, N.Y.-based Nathan's Famous, said the chain's 17 outlets in the metropolitan area encountered a drop-off in business of about 9.5 percent for the Sunday-through-Tuesday period.

"And during the previous four weeks, business had been up 6.5 percent," Norbitz said. "There was just so much publicity people didn't go out to eat, even when the weather turned out to be much milder than anticipated."

Not all restaurant business in the Northeast hit the skids during the recent storm, however. David Bonsick, executive vice president and chief executive of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association in Harrisburg, Pa., said restaurants in the southern half of the state registered little impact.

"The western part of the state got maybe six inches, while the Harrisburg-to-Philadelphia area got two to three inches," he said. "They may have felt something, but certainly not as much as if the snow had actually come."

Tom Meyer, vice president of restaurant development for the Washington, D.C.-based Clyde's Restaurant Group, reported "little drop-off" during the two-day storm. "It was a little rainy here, but nothing unseasonable for us," he said. "It really didn't affect us."

However, he quipped, "I'm a conspiracy theorist at heart. I think the weather guys are in cahoots with the grocery guys."

You really had to bring this up ??? I've tried so hard to forget... lol