Business / Technology

Thursday's icy weather cut into retailers' business and forced some to close early.

New Costco Wholesale CEO Craig Jelinek said the company's Issaquah headquarters was being powered by a generator on Thursday. Costco's Issaquah warehouse was without power until early afternoon, when it began operating with a generator as well.

The chain's other 16 warehouses in the storm zone have kept their usual hours, he said, but, "Needless to say, they're very slow."

The first quarter tends to be slow for retailers anyway, and chains frequently report that bad winter weather in some parts of the country cut into revenues. For Costco, which posted annual revenues of $87 billion for fiscal 2011, the effect of individual storms is minimal.

The impact is greater on small retailers like Elliott Bay Book Co. on Capitol Hill.

Its sales on Wednesday were half what they were on the same day last year, said owner Peter Aaron.

"I don't like it, but I keep reminding myself how grateful I am it came now instead of the middle or end of December, which would have been disastrous," Aaron said.

The bookstore closed early Wednesday evening, because no customers were left in the store, and it expected to close early Thursday.

"We'll kind of play it by ear," he said. "For the most part, everybody is cheerful and grateful to have a place to come and spend time out of the house."

Seattle-based Nordstrom said that while the weather kept many customers at home, its local stores stayed open. The downtown store saw "a fair amount of people," especially in the men's shoe department, where demand was strong for winter boots, said spokeswoman Tara Darrow.

Glassybaby, a Seattle-based maker of decorative glass cups, closed its downtown Bellevue store Thursday after getting only one customer Wednesday. Its store at University Village in Seattle stayed open, but business was virtually nonexistent, said spokeswoman Valerie Waltz. The one bright spot: Glassybaby's e-commerce business.

"Our web store is doing well, so people are shopping at home," Waltz said.

Some Bartell drugstores lost power "briefly," a spokesman said, but all were open as of 1 p.m.

Northgate and Tacoma malls reported no power outages Thursday. At Northgate, a growing number of shoppers began showing up as the temperatures rose above freezing, said general manager Matt Bourassa. The mall closed at 6 p.m. Wednesday, but expected to return to normal hours Thursday.

The power also remained on at Westfield Southcenter mall in Tukwila, making it an attractive option for nearby residents whose electricity had gone out, said general manager Andrew Ciarrocchi.

"They're coming here to get warm," he said Thursday afternoon. "A majority of our stores are open, but some are closed. We closed at 4 o'clock yesterday."

Southcenter mall officials expected to close at 5 p.m. Thursday, four hours earlier than usual, while Bellevue Square said it would close at 6 p.m., 3 ½ hours early.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's Sammamish office was operating on generator power Thursday.

Boeing said that it was operating on normal schedules across the Puget Sound region, except the Frederickson, Pierce County, site where first-shift operations were suspended due to a power outage.