We’ve seen some rainy days this month across the Central Coast and some local business owners say while they know rain will affect business, certain days are having a bigger impact than others.
Kirk Sowell has owned Frankie and Lola’s Front Street Café for the past 15 years. “There’s locals that love coming down and you get people from all over the world that come here,” Sowell said.
He says he’s busy year-round, but usually sees more locals during the offseason and that rain this month has had an impact. “As much as we love the rain it’s really frustrating because I have mostly outside seating or at least half,” Sowell said.
Sowell adds that the rainy weekends have had the biggest impact. “It’s really affected us dramatically it makes it tough to take care of our customers and it also affects the bottom line dramatically,” Sowell said.
Nicholas Baratta was visiting Morro Bay with his family on Wednesday and says they were planning to come to the area last weekend, but the rain changed their plans.
“Because we wanted to go to the beach, we wanted to see the rock, whale watching expedition which was awesome and we like to go in the water so wouldn’t be able to go in if it was raining,” said Nicholas Baratta, Fresno resident.
For Nautical Bean owner Brett Jones, the rain also impacts business at his coffee shops, but it’s something they expect. “What I’ve noticed is even when it does slow down once it rains, people want to get outside after it rains and it kind of makes up for it in the end,” Jones said.
He says during the school year, they get a lot of support from students but tells me over the last few years, he’s noticed more tourists in the area. “We get a lot of that influx in the summertime so that really picks up when the students aren’t here,” Jones said.
For Sowell, he’s hoping anymore rain this spring happens outside of peak business days. “No rain on the weekends. I don’t care if it rains on the weekdays just not the weekends right,” Sowell said.
