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Posted on Thu, Jul 5, 2012 : 7:58 p.m.

Ann Arbor businesses find creative ways to stay open during power outage

By Amy Biolchini

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A powerful storm that knocked out power to thousands in Washtenaw County early Thursday morning has left many Ann Arbor area businesses in the dark — but some are finding creative ways to cater to customers.

For a cluster of businesses at East Stadium Boulevard and Packard Street, the power had been out since 5:30 a.m. Thursday.

Outages in the neighborhood appeared to be spotty, as several gas stations right across the street from the businesses had full power. Traffic signals at the intersection were run off of a generator.

The estimate from DTE Energy to have power restored is 10 p.m. Friday to the businesses, and to the entire area by Saturday - but by Thursday afternoon refrigerators and freezers were already losing their cool.

The 90-degree heat wave is expected to continue through the end of the week.

The staff at Stadium Market at 1423 E. Stadium Boulevard in Ann Arbor was all too familiar working without power. A brief outage last Thursday had temporarily stinted their business, but the extended blackout this week left them in a bind.

With coolers full of prepared sandwiches, salads and lunch meat, and freezers full of ice cream and frozen food, co-owner Vernon George knew it wouldn’t last two days without power.

According to the USDA, refrigerated food is safe to eat only if the power is out for four hours or less. Keep the door closed as much as possible.

Perishable items like meat, poultry, fish, eggs and cooked leftovers that have been above 40 degrees for over two hours should be thrown away. For a guide of what’s safe to eat during a power outage, click here.

George said he donated about 20 boxes of food to Food Gatherers, a nonprofit that collects excess food from area retailers to serve those in need, and to some to his employees. The 40 half-gallons and 80 pints of ice cream left in his freezer was fair game to whomever walked in the store.

Employees from the Caribou Coffee and Great Clips locations next door to the market stopped by to load up on the rapidly melting treats Thursday afternoon.

The rest, George said, would have to be thrown out. In all, George estimated he lost $10,000 of merchandise.

Though his insurance will cover about half of his loss, George said his rates will likely go up after the incident.

George was planning on bringing in a generator to run his credit card machines so he wouldn’t have to turn customers away. In an attempt to keep the store cool, he decided to not turn the gas ovens on Thursday to make pizzas.

Chris Rosenthal, owner of Smoky’s Cigars next door to the Stadium Market, he said he had to stay open as Thursdays and Fridays are the highest-traffic days in the store.

“You can’t make money if you’re closed,” Rosenthal said.

Thursday, the store was open for cash sales only. Rosenthal recently changed the name of Smoky’s to Tobacco Rose after purchasing the business five weeks ago.

Sitting in the dark of his store with an employee, Rosenthal waited out the blackout by eating pizza and watching a TV show on an iPad.

The humid weather meant the cigars in the store’s humidor would be fine through Friday, Rosenthal said, but after that he would need to bring in a generator.

Nearby at Roos Roast Coffee, the staff got a little creative to keep their doors open.

The company served up brews both hot and cold from their mobile coffee cart in its 1155 Rosewood St. location. The cart runs on propane and a motorcycle battery.

“It’s off-the-grid espresso,” said owner John Roos.

Roos invested in a gas generator Thursday morning to keep the company's roaster up and running to fill its weekly customer orders for coffee beans.

The crew was able to roast about 140 pounds of beans Thursday, said roaster Brian Barch.

Generators may be hard to come by, as many big-box stores in the Ann Arbor area reported their stock was nearly depleted by the end of the business day Thursday.

The Lowe’s locations on both Carpenter Road and Jackson Road reported they were sold out - save for one unit. The Costco in Pittsfield Township also reported they had three units left as of 5:15 p.m. Thursday.

The ACE Hardware at 2105 W. Stadium Boulevard had also sold out of its stock of generators, a manager said.

At Weingartz at 5436 Jackson Road in Ann Arbor, the flow of customers for generators was constant.

“We’ve been very, very busy today,” said salesman Brian Dittenber.

The business still had generators for sale Thursday evening because they had so many in stock, Dittenber said.

To run a household air conditioning unit, Dittenber said a generator would have to have a 10,000-watt capacity, which most retailers don’t sell.

Amy Biolchini covers Washtenaw County, health and environmental issues for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at (734) 623-2552, amybiolchini@annarbor.com or on Twitter.

Comments

shepard145

Tue, Jul 10, 2012 : 10:28 p.m.

ABOUT AMY'S PALIN HIT PIECE: Here we read little of the Governor's speech and ideas for how America can recover from the obama disaster as disability, unemployment and food stamps sky rocket while job creation remains dead. ….but that's all fine with Amy here – 'cause that's change she can believe in! LOL Notice how the reference to hated obamacare in quotes to show her contempt for Palin's ideas. The rest of the piece is all about who is paying, her contract, blah blah,…anything to avoid writing an unflattering word about dear leader obama. You'd think after this generation of democrat operatives posing as "reporters" who helped bankrupt the 135 year old ANN ARBOR NEWS would have learned something. ..but I guess not and so AA dot com can look forward to the same fate.

Lets Get Real

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 11:19 p.m.

I had a business teacher and wise mentor who told this story of creative thinking to build good will for his business: Several years ago, when the power grid went out, an ice cream store - knowing they would lose all of their product if power were not resotred quickly - began dipping cones and handing them out to the frustrated, impatient drivers waiting to get through the intersection where the light was not working. Long lines of cars were waiting - but were pleasantly surprised and more patient waiting for their turn while eating the free ice cream cones. Do you think they remembered that day - and who it was that made it a little less awful? And, I wonder how many times they told the story about that ice cream store? Get creative Ann Arbor businesses! Can you sell you steaks, chops, and vegetables grilled on the gas or charcoal grill? Can you invite other neighboring store owners over to talk about cross marketing possibilities? Can you invite in the neighbors - who you wish would shop with you more often rather than the big box store? Can you take the opportunity to do social the old fashion way - face-to-face? Have a checkers tournament in your shopping plaza, teach someone your favorite card game, play a word game. Or, get caught up on that planning you never seem to have time to do. Make a to do list and see how much of it you can blow through!

AySquared

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 5:28 p.m.

How about giving out free drinks too?

Epengar

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 3:29 p.m.

You can view DTE's outage map from any computer connected to the web. The background map loads quickly, but the layer that shows the outages sometimes loads slowly when the map site is heavily used, so you have to be wait, and wait again if you move or zoom. Click on an outage area to see more information, including estimated restoration time: http://dteenergy.com/map/outage.html If you have a smartphone or other mobile device that can access web pages, you can report outages to DTE Energy, and get updates on repairs, here: mobile.dteenergy.com If you have an Android phone or iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, they offer a free app that lets you report and check status, and also view their map of outages: http://www.dteenergy.com/residentialCustomers/problemsSafety/outageCenter/mobile.html

Rod Johnson

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 1:06 p.m.

"Rosenthal recently changed the name of Smoky's to Tobacco Rose after purchasing the business five weeks ago." Then why do you call it Smoky's Cigars?

Amy Biolchini

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 3:56 p.m.

The exterior sign on the business still says Smoky's Cigars, and the owner said the business had been around for about seven years. I thought people would recognize the former name more readily.

zax

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 11:44 a.m.

The picture caught my attention right away as an advertisement for Tsunami Cigars. How sad that a tragic event they Japan is still trying hard to recover from has turned out to be a Madison Ave. money maker. Maybe they donate a percentage of their profits to the victims.

Craig Lounsbury

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 12:07 p.m.

I think the ad may be for an electronic cigarette. From my brief Google its a trademark issued in October of 2011 to a Commerce Township MI company. So don't blame Madison Ave. If you wan to blame somebody blame S&E Distributors http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=doc&state=4001:iue92d.4.6

Enso

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 12:54 a.m.

You know, conservatives always talk about liberals being anti-money, anti-gov, anti-profit, anti-oil, anti-destruction of the environment. But look at how the liberal city of Ann Arbor scrambles when they have to. They will stay in business by any means necessary, even if that means attempting to put a generator outside for power. Or using flashlights to see because they are so far into the bowels of some brick and mortar behemoth they are enveloped by darkness. No, the Tea Party and their ilk have it wrong. Ann Arbor is NOT a city to fear. It will make money any way it has to. It is not afraid of finding ingenious ways to raise a buck. It will stay open through any trouble or inconvenience in search of that filthy, sweaty dollar. And THAT 'Liberals,' is the problem.

Craig Lounsbury

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 11:34 a.m.

"You know, conservatives always talk about liberals being .... anti-destruction of the environment. " So should I assume conservatives are pro-destruction of the environment?

motorcycleminer

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 10:06 a.m.

" a city to fear " ?... conservatives don't fear Ann Arbor their just smart enough to walk around a pot hole not step in it...

1998pa

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 2:29 a.m.

Conservatives talk about liberals being anti-gov? Not sure when that happened, but today's liberals generally support more government control. Regardless, I'm confused by your point. These businesses aren't staying open out of the goodness of their hearts. They're trying to make a buck, which you admitted. They're motivated by what's ultimately best for them. That's what capitalism is based on. And it really works if government stays out of the way.

Halter

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 12:15 a.m.

Krogers on Stadium/Industrial has a constructive method -- they brought in 4 power-generator trucks which have been running all day. They are so loud they are shaking the foundations of my house.

Robert Granville

Fri, Jul 6, 2012 : 7:07 a.m.

I'm right there too but had no idea they were even open.

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