Soup, Umbrella Sales Soar; Zoo, Sea World Are Lonely : Some Businesses Hot When It’s Cold
The Fellows sisters, Judy and Cherryl, were grabbing a glimpse of home.
It was wet.
It was cold.
It was just like England, where the Fellows are from.
“We’ll be there for Boxing Day,” said Judy, who with her sister co-owns Tudor Too, a sandwich and coffee emporium downtown on 6th Avenue.
Some of the offerings in Tudor Too honor British holidays--such as Boxing Day (the first weekday after Christmas)--as well as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and other dignitaries. The Fellows will soon embark on a trip back home.
This week’s weather has been perfect preparation.
How Cold Was It?
At 4 p.m. Wednesday, it wasn’t snowing in downtown San Diego, but if little white flakes had started to fall, the Fellows might have been the least surprised in town. When it gets that cold in England, the prospect of snow is a great expectation.
Passers-by shivered and shook like leaves on a tree, and most couldn’t just walk by Tudor Too--they had to stop in.
“We completely sold out of soup,” Judy Fellows said. “We sold more chili than we ever have. We sold a lot of coffee and a lot of tea. One person from an office would come over and pick up stuff for seven or eight others. We don’t suffer on days like this. We do well.”
Suffering was the response of some to Wednesday’s weather, which was much like the weather of Tuesday, Monday and Sunday. Those seduced by San Diego’s usual balmy breezes and gentle sun have spoken of this week’s weather in tones usually reserved for the Internal Revenue Service.
Some businesses suffer, but others such as the Fellows’ bustling coffee shop, evoke cliches such as “land-office,” as in land-office business.
Hot Day for Sweater Sales
The Fellowses weren’t the only ones thriving Wednesday. Anderson Martin was doing well too. He owns a men’s clothing store by that name downtown. This week, sales of umbrellas and sweaters reached epidemic proportions.
“Most of our sweater sales are of people just wearing them back to their offices,” Martin said. “A lot of these downtown buildings are really cold. We sell a lot of umbrellas any time it rains, but this week has been incredibly heavy.”
Dan Phillips, a clerk at Adventure 16, a wilderness-oriented sporting goods store on Alvarado Canyon Road, said rentals of cross-country ski equipment and snowshoes were at an all-time high.
“We’re about to run out,” Phillips said. “We have a huge influx of people coming in to rent skis. People are heading off to San Jacinto, Mt. Laguna and Cuyamaca by the carload. We’re getting swamped with calls. Things are really hot right now.”
Only because it was cold, and getting colder.
For the same reason, some businesses barely showed a pulse. The Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop in San Carlos reported very slow sales, while a downtown mall of eateries--Four C Square--conceded a 75% drop-off in lunchtime fare. Much of Four C Square is exposed to the elements, and the heating in the basement dining mall doesn’t work anyway.
Popularity wasn’t exactly a virtue of car washes either.
“On a good day, we wash 1,000 cars,” said Jeff Johnson, manager of Body Beautiful Car Wash on Pacific Highway near the airport. “Our average is 600 to 700 cars a day. Today has been very, very, very slow. We’ve washed maybe 30 cars, if that. I sent most of the guys home. It’s a joke.”
Kristin Borchers, a receptionist at the Scripps Ranch Swim and Racquet Club, said cold, “yukky” weather often means a frustrated membership whose tennis score, on days like Wednesday, gets stuck at love and stays there. Borchers’ club offers six courts at one facility, four at another.
Wednesday, none were in use.
“None,” she said. “But even in the rain, people come and swim at our outdoor pool. On a pretty day, though, we’re packed for tennis, especially in the mornings, and then right after work, around 6 p.m. This is a weird week for San Diego. Very, very weird.”
Dan LeBlanc, a spokesman for Sea World, said no group was more disappointed than out-of-town tourists who fly here like snowbirds on a hopeful migration, lured by the promise of breezy, tropical days and cool nights.
On Wednesday, LeBlanc said Sea World welcomed fewer than 600 visitors, whereas the same day a year ago netted 1,600. He said a good day in the summer brings 30,000.
Jeff Jouett, a spokesman for the San Diego Zoo, called rain and cold two of the park’s greatest nemeses. On Wednesday, zoo attendance was 1,403, down 42.3% from the same day a year ago. Jouett said a peak day in the summer brings 25,000 people, while the biggest all-time attendance was 40,000.
Humans may not like such weather, but Jouett said most of the zoo’s creatures, scores of which hail from rain forests, love it, crave it, can’t get enough of it.
That’s kind of the way the Fellows sisters feel. As long as the coffee stays hot, and plentiful, they like San Diego even when it’s cold. Love it, crave it, can’t get enough of it--just like Boxing Day at home.
