Despite losing power on the Saturday before Christmas - one of the busiest shopping days of the season - storeowners at the Bridge Road Shops say this holiday season has been a good one.
Some of the shops, including Yarid's Shoes and Eggplant, had power for half of the day. Others, like Kid Country Toys and Holl's Swiss Chocolatier, were in the dark all day Saturday.
D&G Replica HandbagsThebe Jordan, owner of Eggplant, said half of the boutique had power until late in the afternoon on Saturday. Store employees managed to run an extension cord to one of their registers until the power went off at 3 p.m.
"It was the Saturday before Christmas," Jordan said. "That's not what you want to happen. I know we didn't lose business to any other store, though, because no one had power."
Emilie Yarid, owner of Yarid's Shoes, tried to draw attention to the shoe store by placing large sheets of white paper in the window, spelling O-P-E-N.
"We were able to come in for a little, but we didn't have business because no one could get here," Yarid said.
Now that power has been restored, the South Hills' gift shops are buzzing with last-minute shoppers.
Jordan said Sunday was an eventful day.
"We were really, really busy the day after," she said. "It's been a great season, except for Saturday."
Yarid said losing Saturday's business wasn't good for the family- owned store, but business has picked up.
"It's normally a really large shopping day for us," she said. "But we are making it up."
Next door to Yarid's, at Holl's Swiss Chocolatier, customers hustled to pick up last-minute chocolate gift sets, whole-bean coffee, cocoa mix, chocolate suckers, dessert wines and sauces.
Laura Ray, Charleston's retail manager, said Holl's didn't open at all on Saturday.
"It was a horrible day to have the power go off, but considering all the people that still don't have power, we're fortunate," she said.
Ray said poor road conditions, not just loss of power, were to blame.
"The weather was bad Saturday," she said. "People weren't going out and shopping that day."
Chad and Emilie Love of South Hills said after losing power on Saturday they did not risk leaving their home.
They picked up last-minute gifts at Holl's on Tuesday to make up for their lack of shopping this past weekend.
Replica RadoEmilie, 34, said they did most of their shopping online this year to avoid traffic and checkout lines.
Chad, 40, said they chose Holl's for an office gift to support local businesses and for other, more obvious reasons.
"Everybody loves chocolate," he said.
Amanda Gianola, 29, also picked up some last-minute gifts at Eggplant on Tuesday with her 3-month-old son, Jack, snuggled in front of her.
Gianola, who is originally from Nitro, is an interior designer in Washington, D.C. She said she always comes to Bridge Road to do some shopping when she's home for the holidays.
But with the combination of a new baby and the bad weather this weekend - which had her trapped in Hagerstown, Md., for two days - Gianola got behind on her shopping this ye
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