By Sara Quam
Saturday's weather restricted shopping with furious winds and drifting snow during the last full weekend before Christmas.
Main Street Luverne was almost vacant by Saturday afternoon, and the rest of the city wasn't much better. The open prairie felt gusts of up to 50 mph and wind chill temperatures at 57 below.
Amid the depressed shopping environment, however, Sears stood out as a haven of retail profits. Owner Tim Gust said Saturday was the second-biggest day of sales ever. Those sales beat some very large Sears stores for the day.
"I was as shocked as Sears was," Gust said. "There were a lot of bigger items sold and we had a promotion for the day, but even with that, I was shocked at how busy it was."
The Furniture House closed early to allow out-of-town employees to get home safely. Sears was supposed to be closed at 6 p.m., but with a constant flow of customers, it stayed open until 7 p.m.
Pamida didn't fare as well. Manager Kary Schroeder said the store suffered a sharp decrease in sales from this time last year. The store, which would have been open until 9 p.m., closed at 5, and before that sent most employees home early.
The Rocking Horse, downtown Luverne, was open until 4 p.m., but owner Marcia Ossenfort called Saturday's conditions "an expensive snowstorm." Her store had profits at only 20 percent of what would have been normal for Saturday.
Luverne True Value kept its doors open as usual and had a steady business but not nearly as many shoppers as the past few weekends have attracted. Shoppers who did venture out to True Value were mostly looking for necessary items, not Christmas gifts.
One business that saw a "substantial increase" in sales was Palace Video. "We like bad weather," said owner Larry Boll.
G&S Auto Service was busy Sunday towing vehicles that had been left on Interstate 90 and Highway 75. Saturday's towing was put on hold because roads were closed by the Highway Patrol. The towing workers did get some work done Saturday night after winds subsided, but the bulk was done Sunday.