If there is one takeaway from the success of a couple of local businesses in Pictou County in the wake of Wednesday’s power outage, it’s that success can hinge on having a generator.
Just down the road from the Trenton power plant substation, Rene Cornish, owner of Cornish’s Variety Store, was able to meet the needs of a heavy throng of customers when the power went out for several hours on Wednesday evening. This was all thanks to a propane generator.
“It kept the lights running; it kept the ATM running and it kept our hot food service going, and basically just kept everything percolating as normal,” said Cornish. “It went quite smoothly. Our generator is automatic, so there’s no delay.”
According to Cornish, business was terrific for him in the wake of the outage; it was “like Sunday shopping used to be.” The ATM at Cornish’s Variety Store also got a lot of use, since the need for cash increased with the power being down.
Since the weather was good, people were able to get to Cornish’s store easily, he said. This steady flow of customers kept him and his staff busy throughout the evening, selling food, hot drinks and lunchtime takeout items from their hot food service. He commended the work of his staff in “keeping the situation under control,” performing well under the sudden pressure of the situation.
“There was a lot of sale of general merchandise, a lot of candles, a lot of energy support items like kerosene – propane sold well, too,” said Cornish.
Cornish said a common response among people in his store to the outage was surprise, given how calm the weather was.
“They were buying a few comfort things, like chips. People have the tendency to grin and bear it, and kind of made a party out of it.”
Greg Burrows, owner of several local Subway franchises, also credited generators for two of his businesses managing to flourish during the outage.
Burrows said he had installed generator panels at two of his four Subway locations, after previous weather events ended up knocking out the power. When the power went down on Wednesday, the generators fired up at the East River Road and Stellarton Subway restaurants.
“In a situation like last night’s, we had the capability to make sandwiches, keep the lights on and have the cash register running,” said Burrows. “We can’t serve hot food, and we can’t run the big ovens for toasting or baking bread, since that can’t run off the generator, but we could still sell our product.”
Burrows said they were able to work with what bread they already had baked to make sandwiches. That was enough to serve the inundation of hungry customers – a number Burrows estimated in the hundreds – that descended upon the two Subway franchises still open during the outage.
He joked that it was so busy, that they almost needed a traffic control officer in the parking lot at East River Road.
“As soon as it went dark, people realized those restaurants were still open and we got swamped,” said Burrows. “It got extremely busy. At one point, the breaker on the generator at the Stellarton location was tripped, and was reset. That store ended up closing at the time, so we focused on keeping one location open: the East River Road Subway.”
Burrows said there is an advantage to running a business like Subway, where the heavier equipment “like grills and those bigger machines” aren’t required.
“As long as we have baked bread, we can keep on running.”
