Laguna Beach businesses that struggled during wet winter hope for a sunnier spring

It was raining, it was pouring, and some Laguna Beach businesses were snoring in the first quarter of this year during one of California’s rainiest seasons on record.

Orange County has received almost 12 inches this year, compared with 4 in the entire 2018 rainy season, according to Jordan Villwock, Laguna Beach’s emergency operations coordinator.

Meanwhile, Laguna Beach businesses slogged through a rain-soaked slow season.

At Husky Boy Hamburgers at 802 N. Coast Hwy., manager Hector Vega said the rain caused a domino effect. Construction workers weren’t getting business, so they didn’t show up for lunch at the burger joint, which closed three hours early on some rainy days.

“We lose all that business,” Vega said.

Susan Elliott, who runs the Twig of Laguna gift shop at 1045 S. Coast Hwy., said her sales in February were down nearly 15% compared with the same period last year.

“January was great; we were kind of on a roll,” Elliott said. “Then February hit and we tanked.”

The February weather — the coldest in Los Angeles in nearly 60 years — also affected Thalia Surf Shop at 915 S. Coast Hwy. Employee Rachel Kenney said the shop didn’t meet several of its daily revenue targets in the first quarter. There wasn’t much foot traffic, and the business had to rely more heavily on online orders from other parts of the country and the world.

“Since it’s raining, obviously no one’s going to buy a surfboard,” Kenney said.

Besides the dip in sales, the rain caused other problems for local businesses. At Handplant Skateshop at 1025 S. Coast Hwy., a leak in the roof ruined some merchandise. Tristen Adamson, who works at the shop occasionally, said he opened it one morning and found a stack of pants all wet.

“We can’t sell those anymore,” he said.

Now employees prepare for rainy weather by moving products away from leaky spots.

“We’ve lost enough to know what to do now,” Adamson said.

Downtown businesses, which are flooded with tourists during the summer, experienced mixed results in the first quarter.

Alexa Welsh, operator of Rasta Taco, said the winter rained on the restaurant’s parade. Laguna Beach’s annual Patriots Day Parade, scheduled for March 2, was canceled because of the weather. Rasta Taco sold only one taco that Saturday.

“It was a $5 day,” Welsh said.

To break even, the walk-up taco shop at 170 Beach St. in downtown Laguna needs to make $1,000 per day, she said. The first weekday in 2019 that the shop broke even was March 12. From March 20 to 28, Rasta Taco’s sales were down as little as 7% to as much as 50% compared with that time frame last year.

Constantly trying to make ends meet and match last year’s revenue can take a toll on the psyche, Welsh said.

“You have to be an incredibly resilient person,” she said. “It was for real super scary for several months.”

But George Nelson, owner of Fawn Memories, a tropical gift and resort wear shop at 384 Forest Ave., said tourists or people visiting Laguna for conferences at local hotels will still trek out in the rain to explore the area.

“Even on a rainy day, they’re going to go out,” Nelson said. “They’ve got nothing else to do.”

Fawn Memories welcomed many tourists in the first quarter — not the busiest time of year, said manager Kristen Thompson.

“We’re a resort town. People are going to come anyway,” she said. “They’re here, they’re buying.”

Laura Nicole, a saleswoman at DeBilzan Gallery at 224 Forest Ave., said the weather didn’t affect business there much, though the gallery did have to erect floodgates twice.

“We worried more about the gallery flooding,” Nicole said.

The gallery, along with many other downtown businesses, closed during the Valentine’s Day storm that shut down parts of downtown and Laguna Canyon Road and destroyed part of a storm channel flood wall.

The city has issued three warnings to businesses this year to put up floodgates, compared with none in 2018, Villwock said. The last time the downtown area flooded was December 2010.

Despite the dreary winter, many businesses are holding out hope for a sunny spring.

“March [business] is looking pretty good,” Elliott said last week. “I think … March will be our best March ever.”