In what’s described as a classic nor’easter, tens of thousands of stores closed early Sunday and remained closed Monday, impacted by heavy winds and as much as two feet or more of snow in some areas.
New York City, Newark, Providence, Boston and Philadelphia were among the major cities hit hardest by the winter storm. Roughly 10,000 flights were canceled through Tuesday, with airports in New York, New Jersey, Boston and Philadelphia canceling the most flights, according to media reports. Non-essential travel bans were issued by several municipalities, limiting vehicles on roads. And millions of people stayed home from work and school.
“This is the most impactful winter storm for the Northeast region in terms of blizzard conditions and snowfall totals in the last 10 years, since 2016,” Evan Gold, executive vice president of global partnership and alliances at Planalytics, which quantifies how weather impacts businesses, told WWD.
According to Planalytics data, about 60 million people throughout the Northeast and mid-Atlantic were impacted. By around midday Monday, over 500,000 homes experienced power outages at one time or another.
The loss of retail sales this week won’t be catastrophic, considering Valentine’s Day has passed and that February overall is one of the slowest retail months of the year with consumers focusing on paying off bills from their holiday spending. However, January sales were also slowed by the winter storm that started in the Southwest and reached New England from Jan. 23 to Jan. 26. Between the two storms within weeks of one another, it hasn’t been an auspicious start to 2026 for retailers, though some percentage of the business that otherwise would have occurred at stores could be made up through e-commerce. The biggest losses would be felt by restaurants, entertainment venues and businesses related to travel.
Fortunately, for retailers, temperatures in the 40s are expected this week which will help with snow removals — although more snow is forecast for the New York area at least at the end of the week. Cleanups from the January snowstorm were impeded by frigid temperatures for about two weeks.
Still, some categories of merchandise would see lifts in sales year-over-year. Planalytics estimated that this week winter boot sales would jump 78 percent; hats and gloves, 49 percent; cold weather undergarments, 25 percent; winter coats, 14 percent; firewood, 52 percent, and soup, 30 percent. However, spring apparel is seen dropping 20 to 30 percent.
“Many shoppers are ‘weather weary’ and are primarily purchasing ‘to need,’” said Gold. “This includes replacing what has been consumed as well as to repair or replace what was damaged. Note that this week last year was the warmest final week of February in over 60 years and the least snowfall since 2000. This is a huge, year-over-year change.”
