Spending Impacts of Snowstorms and Extreme Winter Weather

Facteus, a leader in alternative data (and Planalytics partner), has shared some interesting consumer spending insights for the record-breaking snowstorm that hit the Gulf Coast states between January 20-22.  Below are a few examples showing just how much commerce was affected for the week in some key markets. 

In a region that rarely sees wintry precipitation and is ill equipped to handle accumulating snow, most retail businesses took a hit. The graphic above highlights the impacts for the week, but on the days the snow was falling the Facteus data shows spending coming to a near standstill with many retailers and restaurants experiencing 80 to 90+ percent drops in spending. On the other hand, some sectors including grocery stores and DIY stores recorded pre-storm gains as people stocked up on food, snow shovels, and other essentials.

For those that missed the news coming out of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania this past Sunday, the world’s most famous groundhog, Phil, has predicted that the winter weather is not going away anytime soon. While it is unlikely that they’ll have to shovel sidewalks again in the French Quarter, plenty of markets across the U.S. will see snow, sleet, and ice impact business over the next couple of months.

Planalytics’ snow and ice outlook for this week (ending Saturday, Feb. 8) points to potential impacts across the northern tier of the country:

Planalytics’ Weather-Driven Demand (WDD) metrics calculate how much the weather alone increases or decreases demand for product categories. This week’s wintry weather will lift demand for seasonal items: Snow Throwers +53% WDD (vs. normal) in Spokane, Soup +5% in Minneapolis, and Ice Melt +25% in New York City.

Learn how your business stay a step ahead of the weather impacts with Planalytics Xtreme – a demand analytics solution that forecasts the unique consumer demand responses to extreme and seasonally significant weather events such as winter weather (snow, sleet, and ice), tropical storms, hurricanes, cold snaps, heatwaves, heavy rain and flooding, drought, and more.