Bombogenesis in New England

A tough day around New England, but especially in Boston where 18 inches of snow are trying to pile up. Here in Vermont we are getting 6-8, on top of the foot or so that has graced our presence for the last two weeks.

The business of burritos is horrible on days like today. Do we open? Of course we do. What time? 11am? Noon? When should we close? 4pm. Whoops, now it looks worse, so we go with 2pm. Some go at 2pm, others want to do 4pm, and Hanover stays open until 8pm. There are many Groundhog Day moments in the restaurant business… and dealing with snow days is one of them.

Sweetgreen did something interesting… they sent out a note to customers in Boston, NYC, and Philly and said that due to weather conditions all stores were closed. Period. That sure would have been simpler. It’s not typical either. Maybe they are onto something – or should I say yet another thing… because they are the industry darling as I write this… the next Starbucks or Chipotle many believe.

We lost $100,000 as a company during the past two weeks. Thanks to Winter Storm Grayson, bombogenesis, and everything else the weatherman say today to get us to pay attention, we’ll lose another big chunk this week as well. Then, hopefully, we begin the long process of digging ourselves out of the hole between now and March, and if everything goes just right, we’ll cross into profitability for the year in April and beyond.

It’s tough out there.