Bad Weather Destroys Business Plans

Continuous wet weather in the Northeast has not only dampened vacation plans this summer, it is also having a big impact on business plans, reports CBS News Correspondent Jeffrey Kofman.

From Cape Cod in Massachusetts to Cape May in New Jersey it has been a soggy summer.

Businesses that rely on summer trade are getting burned, no thanks to the sun.

Assistant manager Matthew Hrynkiewicz of The Beach Hut Boutique says: "We have some really nice stuff in the store. The problem is if there is no one here to shop it really hurts us."

If there's one thing they don't need at the Water Wizz theme park in Wareham, Massachusetts, it's more water.

The park is only open ten weeks a year, and with summer half gone, the forecast for profits couldn't be more bleak.

Water Wizz manager Suzanne LeBlanc says: "This is my 13th summer working here and I've had 5 1/2 days off in 2 weeks. It's a miracle, but it's horrible for business. There's nothing to compare -- it's awful. It's like the worst drought but with rain."

And it's not just in the Northeast that retailers are stuck with large summer inventories.

In Detoit ice sales are down forty percent, and in the drought-stricken Southwest lawnmower sales are not moving.

Britt Wood, a researcher for the International Mass Retail Association, says: "It kind of speaks to the fact that even when your in a very good economy and, you know, we've had the recent unemployment reports at about 4%, that the weather can still profoundly effect retail. It does play a large role."

It goes to show, it's not just vacations that can be ruined by rain.