Penticton businesses seeing slow down as customers head back inside to avoid the extreme heat

Penticton businesses that were hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions are now dealing with another hurdle, as the heat wave pushes customers back inside.

Outdoor venues face the greatest challenges, with limited options for workers and attendees to cool off.

A local amusement park drastically cut back their hours, after realizing the heat was not only too great for customers to come out in, but also unsafe for their staff.

“We've had to pivot very quickly. It's not safe for our staff to be out during these hours for very long, and it's not safe for our customers and guests either. So we've reduced our hours,” Diana Stirling, owner of LocoLanding Adventure Park said.

"Normally we'd be open 12 hours in the day here at LocoLanding, now we've reduced it to five, so that we're just open from five to 10 at night in the evening for all of our activities. And our mini golf is open the full 12 hours, but we've reduced and cut the rest of the park.”

This has also impacted Stirling's other business, Coyote Cruises and the numbers they see coming down to the Penticton Channel for a float.

“There's a cap, so once we're into the 38 C plus and into the 40 C, it's definitely taken a hit to Coyote as well. So we've had a lot of cancellations and re-bookings, as much as we can return to rebook our guests to maybe next week if they can stay in town.”

With temperatures climbing to high 30s and over 40s this week, many are opting to stay cool inside.

“There has been a lot of answering the phone to cancellations, refunds and it’s just not as busy because it's too hot out there, unfortunately. So we can't blame people for not wanting to be out. But it's really hard on business,” Lyndie Hill, the owner of Hoodoo Adventures said.

Previous pandemic restrictions put their adventure touring business in a tough spot.

“We've lost April, we've lost May and half of June for a peak season that you would normally start to see things sort of pick up at that time and because we lost all that business, now you're really wanting it to explode, and we don't really have much of an end in sight for the heat either.”

An Okanagan-favourite food truck, The Lobster Pot, was planning to open its doors this week in Penticton and Kamloops, but delayed until the temperatures started to lower.

“Primarily we were just concerned about our staff overheating," owner Mike Taylor said.

"We were also concerned about people standing in line waiting for food in the heat. The last thing we want is for anybody to get sick or get heat stroke while waiting in line for lunch.”

With no A/C units available inside the food trucks, it's easy for the temperatures inside to grow eight to 10 degrees hotter than it is outside with the grill on.

Taylor added that this week would have been a big one for business, with a kick off to tourist season and families out at the beach.

“With everything else going on restaurants and food establishments are already struggling a little bit with just coming out of the COVID lockdowns...It's been definitely been a harder season than it has before.”

The Lobster Pot hopes to be able to open up for the weekend, but will be waiting on temperatures to put the plan to open in motion.

Right now businesses are encouraging patience while they wait for the extreme heat to move on, and hopefully, some more support in the future.

“We're really just caring, making sure that our staff and our clients are taken care of when we are in the heat. Especially with the kids, making sure they're not out for too long, but really just lots of cold drinks, lots of freezies,” Hill said.

“Once it does cool down if you can just remember we have such a short season this year, so anybody visiting or any locals that are thinking about doing something, you know, just get out there and really support those businesses because we're going to really need that to get through a winter after a really short season.”