[ad_1]
Sonia McMorran consults her weather app to plan for her store above.
Courtesy of Sonia McMorran
Consumer sentiment fell in March for the first time in four months, according to the University of Michigan.
Running a business means adapting to a changing economic climate. You should plan for the possibility that the cost will decrease.
And in Santa Cruz, a sleepy beach town bordering Silicon Valley, business owners who depend on tech workers’ dollars are worried about the growing number of strikes in the industry.
“For a large population of Santa Cruz who work in the tech industry, whether or not this happens in the future is at the forefront of their minds,” said Sonya McMoran, owner of the gift shop. “And I noticed that the bag straps are tight.”
But the economy isn’t McMorran’s only concern. Now, as she plans for the coming year, she thinks about how severe weather caused by climate change will keep customers away from her store.
“When I started my business, I never thought I’d have to think about what the weather was like,” McMoran said. “In the year In August 2020, Santa Cruz itself experienced one of the largest wildfires ever. And I had to start thinking not only about how to operate a retail business through a medical pandemic, but also through a climate pandemic.
Most recently, that meant the torrential rains that flooded California.
“I really rely on my weather app to help me plan how to reach my customers,” McMorran said. “So if we know there’s a big flood coming, I know I’ll have to put pressure on social media to get people to buy things online and collect them quickly while they’re doing other things or for us to get them to them. If they can’t get to us locally.”
Click the audio player above to listen to the full story.
[ad_2]
Source link
