MINNEAPOLIS — After two straight days of record heat, some local businesses have had to make tough decisions to change hours or close early for the safety of employees and customers.
Hiawatha Supply, which provides bulk materials for professional landscaping companies in south Minneapolis, closed early on Wednesday and Thursday because there wasn't much business to be had.
"Everyone is either starting really early and ending really early, or they're not working at all," said Todd Smith, operations manager for Hiawatha Supply.
Just before noon on Wednesday, several landscaping crews were already dropping off their last loads.
"We're taking half-days, and going inside where and when we can," said Ella Kampelman, who works for Phillips Garden. "We all know we're going to be working slower."
That was especially true Tuesday morning. Kampelman says just a few hours working in record heat took a toll.
"We're still feeling it," she said. "We were talking earlier, we noticed mainly when we got home. I had to lie down."
Paris Fobbe and Joe Quincy, who work for Light Dark Landscaping, said they felt fortunate to scale back as well.
Paris Fobbe: "The owners were being nice, they were trying to find sites that had more shade and were given the option if we wanted to work or not. We were like, 'We can do a half-day.' It's almost like you're working in slow motion and I feel like your mind gets like... I don't know..."
Joe Quincy: "Loopy?"
Fobbe: "Yeah! It's just like, 'I need to be done now.'"
Quincy: "It's a balance between getting hours and not wanting to do this in this heat."
Concert Cancellation
Corey Bracken, owner of northeast Minneapolis' PILLAR Forum Cafe — a coffee and skate shop that hosts concerts several nights a week — also had to make a tough call Wednesday.
"One of the bands scheduled to play here, called Soft and Dumb, they're based out of Chicago, and they just wanted to know if we were guaranteed to stay open," said Bracken. "Just knowing, from previous events, how hot it gets in here, I couldn't give them that guarantee, so we decided to cancel the show for tonight."
Bracken says he knows it was disappointing for all of the bands set to play and their fans.
"Having been in bands my whole life, I remember the excitement of having a show and especially going out of state and having a new audience. We've had this planned for three months, so having to cancel that for them was pretty tough," he said. "But ultimately, I think it was the right move to do, especially being outside and now being in here right now, feeling how warm it is. The thought of 30 or 40 more people in here, I know it would be pretty excruciating."
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