JUNSEI 1

Tei Junsei
Professor Shuwen Li
Writing 120
5 October 2016
How Should Different Entrepreneurs in Michigan Take Weather into Account?
The CEO of Dominos pizza Patrick Doyle once said in an interview, Snow is a
wonderful thing for business. Seriously. For Dominos we love it when you get a little bit
of snow, people stay home and say: eh, Im not gonna go out, I ll order in (Marketplace).
As for now, it is reasonable for him to believe in the money that flows into his pocket, but
he might ignore what deterioration of global warming will do to his future business.
Contradicting to what many might assume that different entrepreneurs should consider
weather, I believe global warming is deteriorating Michigans regional weather and
threating every business in the same way. In the following, I will be mainly discussing how
entrepreneurs in small local business, tourism business, and agriculture business should
consider weather when operating their businesses by considering both weathers current
and future impact on businesses in Michigan.
First of all, a scientific opinion poll, Small Business Majority, released recently shows
that Michigans small employers have experienced a significant financial impact due to
extreme snowfalls in Michigan, with more than four in 10 temporarily shutting their doors
and nearly one in five having to lay off workers (Michigan Chronicle). According to what
Jonathan Tobias, owner of Michigan Green Cabs in Wixom, "Just in the past few months,
I've experienced about $8,500 in damages because of extreme weather. I've been a business
owner in Michigan for some time now, and while you expect snowstorms it's clear the
weather is getting more intense. I'm getting more and more concerned about the economic
impact of these events" (Michigan Chronicle). As we can see from Jonathans complaints,

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his small local business was negatively, financially impacted by the extreme weather in
Michigan. In contrast, Michigan Ski Resort might argue that thanks to the snowfalls in
Michigan, downhill skiers and snowboarders have contributed 146 million annually to the
states travel and recreational industry (Detroit Free Press). A clear comparison was formed
between the Michigan Green Cabs and the Michigan Ski Resort, which having a slow start
to the snowing weather will clip lots of profit.
Though I concede that 146 million is a great number and extreme weather does benefit
those businesses built on snowfall, but it is not necessarily the case for the majority of
business in Michigan, including local restaurants, bars, and shopping malls. Even more, I
doubt the profitability of ski resort, if global warming is causing more snowstorms than
simply snowfalls in the future. The majority (57 percent) of Michigans small local business
owners have foresee the potential results of this ongoing climate change as an urgent
problem that can seriously disrupt the economy and hurt businesses in the very future. And
they have started by supporting clean energy policies aimed at lessening the impacts of
climate change and that benefit their bottom lines (Michigan Chronicle).
Furthermore, in the tourism industry, weather turns out to be an even more significant
factor. For instance, in August 2 2015, a severe thunderstorm rolled off Lake Michigan had
cut off the electricity in Glen Arbor. The day after the storm, almost all of its guests packed
up and left. Its pools, golf courses and restaurants were closed. And the electricity was
announced to be out for three full days. The resort, which can do six figures in revenue per
day during the summer on room rates that can top $700 a night, instead found itself calling
guests who had booked trips last week to encourage them to stay home not the kind of
calls a hotel operator wants to make, said Bob Kuras, President of the high-end resort
(Crains Detroit Business). Similarly, lousy, extreme weather has made millions of tourists
who happen to live within driving distances of our state and are planning vacations in

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Michigan end up cancelling their trips.
Some economic analysts, however, pointed out that many resorts actually exaggerated
Michigan's extreme weather as a big culprit. Despite extremely cold weather, Michigan's
tourism industry experienced steady growth in 2014. As many analysts estimated, weather
is not the culprit of the looming tourism revenue, but many other factors like consumer
confidence, gas price, and even advertising campaign. "The stock markets, gross domestic
product and consumer confidence are all high," said McCole, Assistant Professor in MSU's
Department of Community Sustainability. "Unemployment is down and housing markets
continue to improve. With each year of the recovery, people have more and more
confidence in the economy and are therefore more comfortable spending money on
leisure travel (US Official News). Nevertheless, admitting the impacts of confidence level
and other factors in travellers decisions should not be the reason for ignoring or denying
the negative influence of extreme weather acted on Michigans tourism. And if
entrepreneurs in Michigan keep ignoring or not exaggerating the weather as an essential
factor for their companies, global warming will make them pay for their unawareness
sooner or later.
Finally, agriculture business is actually facing the same threat from weather.
Horticulture experts say some apple and grape growers not only cannot harvest their whole
crop due to snowstorm and hail damage, but also their fruits suffer from puncturing and
frozen. For instance, the extreme weather made Wineries on Grand Traverse County's Old
Mission Peninsula, which took a direct hit, closed for several days. Plus, Michigans
season-long wet and cold weather has always been a challenge for fruits growers (Crains
Detroit Business). Someone would say that squeezing punctured apple into apple juice
could rebound the damage of extreme weather. But, while some apples might be
salvageable for juice, growers wont earn as much in juice as they would be selling. And

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others might also point out the fact that farmers in different regions should be well prepared
to face different regional difficulties, including from natural disasters to detrimental bugs.
While they might be right that agriculturalists around different regions do normally come
up with a solution with their specific regional problem, they are on a more dubious ground
when it is Michigans weather, which is listed on the most unpredictable weather cities in
the states. The temperate zone and the presence of great lakes and mountains make the
weather in Michigan extremely complicated and capricious from time to time. As a result,
the agriculture is largely impacted by the unpredictability and extremeness of weather in
Michigan, which will get worse with the ongoing global warming. I believe every local
growers has aware of this inevitable total crop loss already, and it is necessary for them take
an even more serious attitude toward the increase of coldness in Michigan.
In conclusion, the weather has long been damaging businesses in Michigan in different
ways. Plus, the weather in Michigan tends to become more unpredictable and extreme in
the very future, caused by the continuing global warming. Therefore, every entrepreneur in
Michigan is facing the same threat, and should consider weather as a huge factor when
operating their businesses. Probably, a single entrepreneur may not benefit from their
awareness or support for fighting global warming, but in the long term, the efforts will pay
back to the society.

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Works Cited
Abney, Allison. Extreme weather hits Michigans small businesses, poll. Michigan
Chronicle. vol.77, no.26 (2014): A.3. Ethnic NewsWatch, ProQuest Newsstand. Web.
17 April 2014
http://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1514721483?
accountid=14667
Barber, Sally. Michigan ski resorts warm weather has been
keeping sites closed, but managers maintain hope by
saying let it snow. Detroit Free Press. (2001): A.15 Gannett
Newsstand. Web. 23 August 2013
http://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/436330757?
accountid=14667
Jeremy, Hobson. Budget surplus, weather important to Michigan economy. The
Real Economy. Marketplace, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2012
http://www.marketplace.org/2012/02/22/elections/real-economy/budget-surplusweather-important-michigan-economy
"Lousy weather can't stop Michigan tourism growth." US Official News 23 Mar.
2015. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=STND&u=lom_umichanna&id=GALE|
A406724511&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon&userGroup=lom_umichanna&authCount=1
VanHulle, Lindsay. Storms take toll on tourism: Bad weather damages bottom line
for lodging, retail, fruit crops. Crains Detroit Business. vol.31, no.32 (2015): 1.
ABI/INFORM Collection, ProQuest Newsstand. Web. 13 August 2015
http://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1703699806?
accountid=14667