Hot Days, Cool Profits : Sweltering Swells the Bottom Line for Merchants Selling Relief

It’s too darn hot in Southern California. That is unless you are in the business of peddling the accouterments of summer coolness: fans, wading pools, sun-block lotion, air conditioners, air-conditioner repairs and ice cream, among them.

Thanks to nearly two weeks of high heat and humidity, North Hollywood Ice Co. is running three shifts and selling 100 tons of ice a day--all it can make. The fan inventory at A. A. Baker’s Hardware in Glendale is dwindling fast, and the outlook for restocking is poor.

The bottom line is customers are sweaty and salespeople are cranky, but some business owners are happy. That’s because, for many, these hot sales are much better than last summer’s, when the mercury stayed stubbornly low.

Still, this summer sales spurt will be all too brief. Already, clothing stores are stocking jackets and sweaters for fall and winter wear. And displays of Christmas ornaments have been spotted at some drugstores and card shops.

“We love this weather. Our franchisees love it,” said Marilyn Novak, spokeswoman for Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream.

Although the private Glendale-based company doesn’t reveal revenue, sales are “way up,” aided by the recent introduction of several new products and the comparison with last year’s cool summer, she said.

“Naturally, this is the time of the year that our franchisees all wait for, and days like these are record-breakers,” Novak said. In contrast, franchisees in Chicago are having a tough time now as evening temperatures dip as low as 40 degrees, she said.

At Allred’s Pool Supplies in Laguna Hills, sales are up about 20% from last summer, with pool maintenance chemicals leading the list, manager Herb May said.

The heat wave “can stick around as long as it wants to,” May said. “Last year there was no summer as far as we were concerned.”

A.A. Baker’s Hardware sells ceiling and portable house fans “and they’ve all been going like crazy,” general manager Gerry Phipps said. “Right now, I’ve got a fair stock, but it’s running out and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get any more.”

A nearby Home Depot store has sold out of air conditioners, fans, evaporative coolers and even patio furniture umbrellas.

“Anything that would cool people down moves really quick,” said manager Steve Aaronson. “We got a half truck (of fans) on Saturday, and it was gone by Sunday morning.”

At Southern California’s 165 Sav-On drugstores, “the hot weather stuff is flying out of the stores,” said Meredith Anderson, spokeswoman for American Stores, the Salt Lake City company that owns Sav-On. Fans, sun-block lotion and umbrellas are in high demand.

Sizzling temperatures cause lethargy, crankiness and a general decline in productivity, said Mitchell Marks, an organizational psychologist and principal in the Los Angeles office of William M. Mercer Co., a consulting firm.

“The heat and the kind of mugginess that we’ve been experiencing just drain people, and they might not be as perky,” Marks said. At times like these, managers need to be more lenient and to consider offering flexible schedules or giving employees the opportunity to “buy” a day off.

“It’s the kind of thing that organizations typically don’t do, because they might say, ‘Hey, we’re opening the door to people not being as aggressive and productive.’ But no one is aggressive and productive anyway,” Marks said.

Carol Hamilton, who has been doing a brisk business this month at her Seaport Kite Shop in San Diego, said customers have been “pretty grumpy” as they browse through her non-air-conditioned shop.

The traditional is-it-hot-enough-for-you query is repeated by customers “several times a day,” Hamilton said. “They also ask, ‘Does this (kite) work? Does this fly?’ I just look at them like, ‘Give me a break.’ ”

Phipps of A. A. Baker’s Hardware said his store’s evaporative coolers aren’t working well because of the humidity, “so we’re all sitting here sweating together.”

“I thought about putting ice in (the sales staff’s) undershirts, but I didn’t think that would really work,” Phipps quipped. “We just try to keep a good sense of humor about it.”