Holiday-time snow encourages Incline merchants

Merchants and property managers in Incline last week said the best Christmas gift they received was a little dusting of snow.

Incline Vacation Rentals owner Karen Viel said that after Thanksgiving, she started feeling the pinch, lowering the holiday minimum stay requirement from a week to a long weekend.

"It's still slow; slower than usual for this time of year," she said. "I don't know if it's the weather reports, gas prices, the fact that New Year's falls on a weekend, or that Utah and Colorado have had such good snowfalls."

Though Incline at Tahoe Realty has also had a slow start, spokesman Chris Paulsen said business picked up after Bay Area news outlets reported on last week's cold snap.

"We saw a big surge over the weekend when we had snow that stuck," he said. "As soon as it was reported in the media, the phones started ringing off the hook."

Paulsen said customers remember last year's New Year's flood, and may have been gun-shy.

Village Ski Loft manager Randy Fraser said last week's snow helped his business.

"Christmas is tough for ski shops because it usually comes about three weeks too early," Fraser said.

While Potlatch owner Lynn McGinty said she welcomes a good snowfall, weather has little effect on her sales.

"So far, so good," she said. "It's about even (with last year) and people (buy) gifts last-minute anyway."