Heat Wave Blood Bath

Took a beating this week as we hit our 10th straight day above 100 degrees. I was running a little slow this summer and did some aggressive mailings that actually kicked things up more than I expected. Actually doubled our weekday sales, mostly deliveries, but I wasn’t prepared with marketing materials to continue.

But, this week…jeez, I feel like I’d have been better off just closing the doors for a few days. The only plus is that we’re open really late on the weekends because we’re in the middle of a downtown bar district and we’ve been slaying on late night sales.

I did a little bit of door hanging on Thursday and had to cut it short because I was so fatigued.

Anyone else “feeling the burn”?

Feel for you Indie.
We get the same here in summer with temps +100F (40 + c) for weeks on end. Our climate is similar to California without any humidity, just dry heat.
In summer everyone goes to the beach - we have a number of them from 1km to 5km from the store - and then come in for pizzas when it starts to “cool” down a bit. It’s terrible trying to roster staff.
You are dead or just really slow for the beginning and then it gets busy just when you are about to close.
Dave

We have never had a 100 degree day here and so far it has not hit 90 this year… even so, for us, the warmer the day, the later the rush.

The best weather for us at this time this year is to have a thunderstorm at BBQ o’clock. Fortunately, in the mountains, this happens once in a while. We get great weather all day, an afternoon build up of thunderheads and a cloudburst. Then it clears up in time for a great sunset and a clear evening.

Talk about hot and miserable we are in the middle of the hottest and driest summer in history. We have had 30 days of 100+, with no end in sight, and less than 1 inch of rain for the year. Business has been down a little but talking with my fellow restaurant owners in town, which depend mainly on dine-in customers, we have been blessed. Our rush has moved from 6pm to 8pm, people just do not want to eat a lot when the temperature is 100. I hope we all get a break soon, my electric bill is killing me and it is still extremely hot in the kitchen.

pizzaduo:

I hope we all get a break soon, my electric bill is killing me and it is still extremely hot in the kitchen.

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I was thinking last night that this probably has a lot to do with it. People are getting and paying their first summer electric bill. Mine for the store was about $250 higher than normal for this time of year, so I’m betting a lot of people got their bill about 10 days ago and are stressing about being able to pay it.

lol…middle of July and it’s still raining here, but I’m in Oregon…