By Jose Castillo, news correspondent
As of Monday morning, more than 104 inches of snow had fallen on the City of Boston this winter, causing school closings, bringing MBTA service to a halt and creating travel catastrophes. However, local businesses are perhaps the most hurt by this series of storms.
According to a study from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, this weather has cost the state of Massachusetts $7 billion in lost revenue and can potentially stifle economic growth for the rest of the year.
One of the businesses hit hard by this winter is 333 Salon and Barber Shop, the newest addition to the shops facing Ell Hall on the other side of Huntington Avenue.
“January is a horrible time to open up [a hair salon] anyway because most people get their hair cut before the holidays, the students are all gone, the weather sucks, so they don’t even need a haircut,” Michael Baldino, the shop’s owner, said.
333 Salon and Barber Shop was set to open late summer of last year, but its grand opening was pushed to January due to issues with leasing, city regulations and the overall state of facilities provided. The timing, along with the snow, mixed to form the perfect storm, preventing customers from coming in and getting their hair done.
“Parking ban, you can’t walk down the street, you can’t take the MBTA, and, on top of that, opening a new business doesn’t help,” Baldino said of his shop’s lack of success.
Other companies, however, felt the opposite effect.
“We have had a lot more deliveries because no one wants to leave their house,” Cody, a worker at Il Mondo Pizzeria on Huntington Avenue who wished not to reveal his last name, said.
The employee explained, however, that there are downsides to this, and the cold temperatures haven’t helped.
“You end up with two-hour delivery times, and the problem with that is that no matter what time your order comes out, it’s just so cold out that the food isn’t hot anymore by the time it gets to the customer,” Cody said. “It’s hard to have good quality control.”
While the storms have been burdens for some stores, they did not prevent customers from going all out during last month’s Valentine’s Day.
Alex, an employee at Louis Barry Florist located at the Shops at Prudential Center who wished not to reveal his last name, described how busy it was during the holiday.
“I thought it was going to be [empty], but the 13th was worse than the 14th, and on the 13th, we had a line stretching all the way to the Microsoft store,” Alex said.
Alex said that sales had increased from last year’s Valentine’s season, despite several days when a majority of Prudential shops were closed.
As the weather warms up and spring break approaches, businesses have buckled down and are trying to recover what was lost to the snow.
“We’ve done some specials on Reddit, and we give people discounts just if they come in and check in on social media,” Baldino said.
After 333 Salon began to feel the snow’s effects more acutely, Baldino turned to Northeastern University’s Pi Sigma Epsilon, a fraternity focused on sales and marketing, for help. The fraternity took on the salon as a project and has helped spread word about the business.
Guido Areces, a sophomore marketing and interactive media major and the project’s leader, was excited to begin working.
“As soon as I was given the project, I took the initiative and tried to be as productive as possible,” Areces said. “[We would] display advertising, kind of like what I’m doing now, which is looking at business matters and trends with Google Analytics and social media sites.”
Areces’s team has taken advantage of digital means to spread word about 333.
“We’ve done a few social media platforms; we’ve debated on doing the paid advertisements on Facebook or even Google AdWords,” Areces said.
However, he found that a paid campaign wouldn’t break even: the fraternity wouldn’t be able to compensate for the money being put into it. Instead, they’re taking advantage of social media by using word of mouth in a digital sense.
Areces’s team’s most recent campaign has capitalized on the co-op interview process. According to Areces, 70 percent of employers say that appearance is important in an interview.
“About a week ago on Photoshop, my software team designed a display advertisement you might have seen on campus,” Areces said. “If you like us on Facebook, then it’s a $10 wash and cut for Northeastern students.”
His team also plans to ride the coattails of upcoming Greek life formal events that take place in the spring.
“All of this weather has made it incredibly difficult to try to get more people to come out and get haircuts, et cetera, so it’s been a challenge, but it’s been a lot of fun,” Areces said. “This is my first real marketing experience.”
If the campaigns are successful, Baldino’s salon will reap the benefits in the coming weeks and bounce back from the havoc the storms have wreaked.
“My advice is to not open a salon right before a historic snowstorm,” Baldino said.
Photo by Joe Thomas
