Last week, the largest blizzard in Rhode Island history brought over three feet of snow to the state. With Rhode Island under a state of emergency and travel ban, roads across the state closed down, and so did many of the businesses they connect.
Seymour Foods, a locally-sourced grocery store in Providence, was one of those businesses. The shop closed from Feb. 23 to Feb. 25, and “the only reason we even reopened Thursday was because we had deliveries,” according to co-owner, Lisa Kellogg.
Even after re-opening, “our sales definitely suffered,” added Chloe Cartagena, the shop’s other co-owner of the store. This winter, Seymour Foods has also closed for a total of four days due to snow, and food deliveries have been delayed by up to a week due to weather, Kellogg said.
Long Lane Farm, a produce farm in Warren, has been “severely damaged” by the blizzard, wrote Camille Abdel-Nabi, an owner and manager of the farm.
“One of our greenhouses totally collapsed under the weight of the snow and two others partially collapsed or experienced other damages,” Abdel-Nabi wrote.
Most of the farm’s tomatoes — their most important crop — were growing in the now-damaged greenhouses, “so we already know our tomato harvests will be significantly down this year,” she added.
They also lost many of their “early crops,” which the farm typically sells starting in April. As a result, “we expect that our farm stand will need to open later this year,” Abdel-Nabi wrote.
In addition to around $20,000 in crop losses, Abdel-Nabi wrote that fixing and rebuilding their greenhouses will cost roughly $60,000. The farm has launched a GoFundMe to help offset these costs.
Big Feeling, an ice cream shop in Providence, also closed Feb. 23 and 24 because of the hazards caused by the blizzard. They opened back up on Wednesday to “accommodate people on foot,” but around half of their employees had difficulties getting to work, said Alex Maddalena, the shop’s owner.
It was “a really slow week,” Maddalena said, adding that the ice cream shop saw “a lot fewer people than usual.” But by Friday, he said that foot traffic at Big Feeling had returned to normal.
For Maddalena, the City of Providence’s snow clearing process has been “a little frustrating” and “a little baffling.”
“Being in New England, I think it's totally fair to expect that a city of our size would have invested in precautionary equipment that could deal with a scenario like this,” he said.
The city did not respond to a request for comment.
Challenges with storm clearance also impacted Seymour Foods’s ability to open. “Normally, our part-timer works on Wednesdays and she walks to the store, and she couldn’t because the sidewalks weren’t shoveled along her route to the store,” Kellogg said. This also contributed to their decision to keep the store closed on Wednesday.
“Part of the snow that's blocking (the store) is here from the last storm,” Cartagena said. Providence “had a better response for the blizzard, but because there was still so much snow from the previous storm, it made it a lot harder.”
“We just really had to wait until (the city) plowed us out,” Cartagena said. She added that a nearby condominium association maintains the ground in front of their building, rather than the City of Providence.
Still, many local businesses made the best of the snowy weather. On Feb. 27 and 28, Seymour Foods offered a promotion where Providence and Pawtucket residents could get free grocery delivery over the weekend. “We decided to do it because people can't get to the store, and also there's a parking ban going on,” Cartagena said, adding that around a dozen people took advantage of this offer.
Providence’s parking ban was lifted at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Brown Bee Coffee, a cafe and bakery in Providence, was one of few businesses that stayed open through the blizzard on Monday.
“Turnout was all walking traffic,” Brown Bee owner Waleed Ghazi said, adding that “people showed up on skis, on snowboards, everything.”
“Everybody in the neighborhood likes to go out and walk and really enjoy the historic district in the snow,” Ghazi said, so they wanted to “add a stop to everyone’s adventure that day.”
On Monday, it was just Ghazi and his wife operating the coffee shop. They offered a limited selection of pastries with a full drink menu.
“We felt the demand from the community that if we were open, they were going to come anyway,” he added. “We turned the corner of Benefit Street into Switzerland.”
Brown Bee is typically closed on Tuesdays, but per the request of Monday’s customers, “we made an exception for the first time since we’ve ever opened” and stayed open on Tuesday, Ghazi said.
Some employees were able to come in starting on Tuesday. “We've done everything we can to make sure that they are able to come in,” Ghazi said, including giving employees rides and ordering them Ubers.
“The line was down Benefit Street,” on Tuesday, Ghazi said. Brown Bee was shoveled out by a private team partway through the day on Tuesday.
Maddalena said that Big Feeling has taken advantage of their snow days to “figure out new hours, new products and new avenues to keep revenue coming in despite the weather,” he added. “This is not going to be the last blizzard we encounter.”
Pavani Durbhakula is a senior staff writer and photographer. She is a first-year from DC and plans to study IAPA and Public Health. In her free time, she enjoys baking, reading, and searching for new coffee shops.
