Local businesses bounce back after struggling under wintry weather

AMMAN — For various businesses across the Kingdom, cold weather and snowfall have caused a drop in weekly sales and foot traffic.

“The weather impacted our sales immediately. We opened our shop, but no one really came,” said Hala Abdullah, the owner of a clothing boutique in Amman. She noted that the first week of February also saw a significant decline in retail sales of around 15 per cent.

As snow eased in most of Amman, head of the Jordan Association for Restaurants and Sweet Shop Owners, Omar Awwad, told The Jordan Times that demand for restaurants increased, especially for fast food, coffee and sweets. To keep revenue steady in the winter, the majority of restaurants, cafes and sweet shops have prepared their outdoor spaces, he added.

 “On Tuesday when the snow first started, restaurants’ business was down by at least 50 per cent, but now it is operating normally,” Awwad said.

“We were fully booked on Tuesday, but most of our customers did not come that day,” Haifa Kamal, an employee at a beauty salon in Amman, told The Jordan Times. With freezing weather continuing the next day, the salon offered a 50 per cent discount on all their services, which Kamal said brought some of the shop’s customers back.

On the other hand, demand for food and household goods went up, according to Waleed Ali, a grocery store owner, who also noted that “customers were ordering over the phone, but the majority were coming in person”.