Shop owners have lost footfall, sales and deliveries due to Storm Darragh, in a weekend that is supposed to “kick off” the Christmas sales.

The Met Office issued a red warning for Storm Darragh winds in the coasts of south and west Wales and south-west England on 7 December.

Jay Vakil, of Spar in Brecon, Powys, estimated a loss of £1,000 on 7 December due to the storm.

“We were heavily impacted, mostly because we didn’t have any bread deliveries and our Spar delivery was a day late,” she said. “What annoyed me was the lack of communication. We couldn’t even send an email out. Bread is such a basic essential, people came in for it and were even panic buying. We couldn’t give it to them though.”

Meanwhile, Judith Smitham, of The Old Dairy, Pydar Stores in Truro, said she lost £600 in sales over the weekend, which comes during “the toughest” trading year in her 23 years of working in retail.

She said: “I think Wales got the worst of the weather, but it was pretty bad in Cornwall, and there were a lot of trees down and power outages. In Truro, a solar panel flew off the roof and the road was closed for 24 hours. Power cables came down too, it was pretty rough. It was dry, but just really windy, so now everything is dusty.”

Fiona Malone, Tenby Stores & Post Office, Pembrokeshire, said their store lost footfall on the Saturday, but “consequently it was a lot busy on the Sunday”.

She added that the store didn’t receive its newspaper delivery on the Saturday.

“We weren’t too bad – we were quite lucky,” she said. “There were very high winds and some trees down. We did lose a sign, it’s a new banking sign. Luckily the fire brigade came out and took removed it, as it could’ve hit someone and caused real damage. But some of the local villages lost power and were without for 24-48 hours.”

Shops halt trade as Storm Bert leaves heavy floods

Small Business Saturday

Smitham added that the weather impacted Small Business Saturday, a day intended to promote independent businesses in communities and kick off Christmas sales.

“We still tried to carry out Small Business Saturday with inside tastings, but people weren’t out and about and didn’t want to hang around due to the storm,” she said. “The day is supposed to kick off the Christmas sales. These weather events are happening closer together, and they’re more furious.”

Trudy Davies, of Woosnam & Davies News in Llanidloes, Powys, said the store “had a lot planned” for Small Business Saturday, but the event was postponed.

“The storm was an inconvenience,” she said. “The whole community was told to stay indoors due to risk to life. There was a lot of water on the roads, and everything was made more difficult – definitely more stressful, driving in that weather.”

Community help

Davies added that she ensured to help the community out, offering to deliver neccesities and giving out homemade gift bags.

“There were a couple of elderly people in the hills I helped, and someone who had no water so I reported this. Some people are still having to be supplied with bottled water. I’ve been giving out Llanny love bags – I call them VAT bags, value added treats.”

Davies added that she put her personal phone number out on social media for those that needed assistance.

“That’s the difference between an independent store in a community and, say, Tesco. You can’t call Tesco with these requests,” she added.

Meanwhile, Malone said she and her partner Vince carried out deliveries to customers on the weekend due to the impacts of the storm.