No Summer in Maine this year!

[elston]

Well the last week belies the title of the thread.....What beautiful SUMMER WEATHER we have been enjoying. It makes all the wet cold days vanish from my mind....and I am grateful for a chance to enjoy all the loveliness.

We took a drive over to Pinelands Farm....what a great place to visit. The dairy operation is really impressive and the perennial garden is beautiful. The week of sunshine is what it needed to take off.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by elston

Well the last week belies the title of the thread.....What beautiful SUMMER WEATHER we have been enjoying. It makes all the wet cold days vanish from my mind....and I am grateful for a chance to enjoy all the loveliness.

We took a drive over to Pinelands Farm....what a great place to visit. The dairy operation is really impressive and the perennial garden is beautiful. The week of sunshine is what it needed to take off.

Pineland Farms is very nice. Their cheese is excellent! We stop by the perennial garden several times a month! DW gets alot of ideas from that garden!

If that was summer it sure was a short one! We had a few rainless days (except some downpours on Saturday the 18th). Now we're back in the week long rain pattern of old. Heavy rain precicted today and tonight with rain and showers all week long. Next shot at a sunny day....Saturday the 25th.
This has been by far the worst summer I have ever seen around here weather wise.
Talking with a local businesswoman who has a restaurant on the water she said the same thing. The weather has killed her business this summer. She said that even if it was completely dry and sunny the rest of the summer she's already had the worst summer in 35 years of running that business.
Can't do much about wet weather but that won't keep me from complaining about it!

[dmyankee]

By far... this has been the worst summer and the slowest tourist season in over 20 years, from coastal Maine to far up here, inland. Its going to be a long winter.

On the bright side, I am able to buy at least one extra firearm per week around here. I might just have a couple months of full time hunting this fall, for a change.

[island mermaid]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

By far... this has been the worst summer and the slowest tourist season in over 20 years, from coastal Maine to far up here, inland. Its going to be a long winter.

Southern Maine isn't doing too bad as far as tourism. Freeport was crawling with people walking around in the rain yesterday.
Retail on Commercial St in Portland seems to be doing well also, at least where I hang out.
dmyankee, I'll start to sing the praises of beautiful downtown Greenville to everyone I encounter.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by island mermaid

Southern Maine isn't doing too bad as far as tourism. Freeport was crawling with people walking around in the rain yesterday.
Retail on Commercial St in Portland seems to be doing well also, at least where I hang out.
dmyankee, I'll start to sing the praises of beautiful downtown Greenville to everyone I encounter.

Yes the retail places have done well but it seems to be mostly on the weekends. The weekday traffic is down especially when you talk to anyone who runs a campground or is anywhere off the beaten path. Freeport is ALWAYS swamped when it rains as folks can't think of anything else to do but shop when it rains. Two miles from Main street in South Freeport,however, they are going broke as no one wants to eat crabmeat rolls in the rain!
We took a chance and drove route 302 from Barre Vermont through to North Windham last Sunday. Something I would normally never do in summer because of the traffic in all of the little lake towns along the way. We sailed through! The only holdup was about 10 minutes in North Conway and about 10 minutes in North Windham. I have been in traffic in North Conway literally for hours in the past. From what we've seen overall tourist traffic is way down.

[7th generation]

Yep business is hurting in these parts and off by 45% this summer.
Rain rain go away,
Wish it was as good as JBay. (RBI's that is).

[msina]

LOL 7th!! A few days to dry out would be much appreciated. We took a tree down and did a little "limbing" on some others. There's a big pile of small limbs and junk to clean up if they dry out enough to handle.
Since you're the "Maine Mod", can't you arrange to delete the rain for a bit, hmmm?

[CoastalMaine]

All the tourists must be down here. It's wicked!!!!!!!!!! UGH! And the rain just makes them act fugly!!!

[dmyankee]

Everyone I know in the Mom and Pop businesses is down this year. This place and others looks more like a post Labor Day week than mid July. The rainy weather always brings people out to shop, but its too little, too late. You know you have to restock certain items, but you hesitate and try to move other stock out the door. That hurts the wholesalers also. Its a vicious cycle that will add fuel to the recession and possibly close a few more doors this year.

I am already marking merchandise down and trying to push stock out the door. I am even toying with the idea of setting up at Montsweag one weekend soon, to unload a truckload of nautical related stuff and vintage souvenir stock I have piled to the ceiling.