But while a three-day power outage still closed the doors until last weekend, there was ultimately no damage done at the independent toy store.
“We’d had bad storms before, but we’ve never closed,” Kinyon said.
Annette Norton, owner of Savvy + Grace, did not even have to close her store at 146 Main St. since the power never went out.
Kalina Kinyon and Max Benjamin, co-assistant managers at The Toy Post, said flooding worries were unfounded, but they were surprised to lose electricity for several days. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
“And I was amazed at how many people were still coming out,” she said, in particular many new families that have recently relocated from New York City.
Norton explained how closing during the initial COVID-19 shutdown “forced me out of my comfort zone.”
As a consequence, she developed the online side of her business more, among other things, so expectations for a storm-related shutdown were not going to swamp her business.
Numbers were markedly slower this week, she noted, mainly as people just assumed everything was shut downtown. But seemingly those new to town came out to do more exploring, or perhaps were searching for signs of electricity.
“I did have the New Yorkers traffic, which was great,” she said.
“Obviously we couldn’t do a whole lot,” said Colin Bannon, manager of New England Hemp Farm at 136 Main St., owing to the shutdown of power.
Instead, he said, the company worked to keep their brand in the forefront of people’s minds through social media efforts — in particular Instagram.
Colin Bannon, manager of New England Hemp Farm, said he kept customers engaged through social media, though a lack of available Wi-Fi limited contact for many. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
“We tried to keep our audience engaged,” he said, “through constant activity on social media … But obviously that was tough because people couldn’t check their phones without Wi-Fi or electricity.”
Fortunately, none of their merchandise is perishable without refrigeration, so it became a waiting game until they were able to open this past weekend.
“Everything was pretty easy … We had no flooding, no losses, no damage,” Bannon said.
Of course those are only the businesses that are back on line. As of Monday evening, many places downtown were still without power and — consequently — still without customers.
Eversource promised most of its Westport customers would have power by midnight tonight.
But while a three-day power outage still closed the doors until last weekend, there was ultimately no damage done at the independent toy store.
“We’d had bad storms before, but we’ve never closed,” Kinyon said.
Annette Norton, owner of Savvy + Grace, did not even have to close her store at 146 Main St. since the power never went out.
Kalina Kinyon and Max Benjamin, co-assistant managers at The Toy Post, said flooding worries were unfounded, but they were surprised to lose electricity for several days. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
“And I was amazed at how many people were still coming out,” she said, in particular many new families that have recently relocated from New York City.
Norton explained how closing during the initial COVID-19 shutdown “forced me out of my comfort zone.”
As a consequence, she developed the online side of her business more, among other things, so expectations for a storm-related shutdown were not going to swamp her business.
Numbers were markedly slower this week, she noted, mainly as people just assumed everything was shut downtown. But seemingly those new to town came out to do more exploring, or perhaps were searching for signs of electricity.
“I did have the New Yorkers traffic, which was great,” she said.
“Obviously we couldn’t do a whole lot,” said Colin Bannon, manager of New England Hemp Farm at 136 Main St., owing to the shutdown of power.
Instead, he said, the company worked to keep their brand in the forefront of people’s minds through social media efforts — in particular Instagram.
Colin Bannon, manager of New England Hemp Farm, said he kept customers engaged through social media, though a lack of available Wi-Fi limited contact for many. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
“We tried to keep our audience engaged,” he said, “through constant activity on social media … But obviously that was tough because people couldn’t check their phones without Wi-Fi or electricity.”
Fortunately, none of their merchandise is perishable without refrigeration, so it became a waiting game until they were able to open this past weekend.
“Everything was pretty easy … We had no flooding, no losses, no damage,” Bannon said.
Of course those are only the businesses that are back on line. As of Monday evening, many places downtown were still without power and — consequently — still without customers.
Eversource promised most of its Westport customers would have power by midnight tonight.
