Melanie Lundrigan grinned at a flaming pink flamingo garden ornament on store shelves Thursday next to a collection of gnomes, owls and roosters.
“It gives me hope. I think about all the backyard fires,” said the St. Philip’s woman, who was passing by the rows of spring and summer products in a St. John’s Canadian Tire store.
At many retailers, especially national chains, attention has already turned to warm weather stock like deck furniture, patio lanterns, garden soil and seeds, inflatable pools, charcoal, coolers and fire pits.
Shovels and snowblower parts share space with weed trimmers. An aisle of puffy winter coats and fuzzy slippers leads straight to a wall of life jackets.
With Snowmageddon, plus a couple dozen storms, a bad forecast for Saturday into Sunday — that has social media flying with wild guesses anywhere from five to 50-plus centimetres — and nasty weather likely to last until at least the end of March, it can be hard to imagine anyone being comfortably barefoot on the back deck on a summer night, a cool drink in hand — be it sparkling water or something stronger.
But despite the six feet of snow Lundrigan has on her property, the shift in retail stock is a sign those warm weather days are drawing closer.
“It gives you hope all the ice and snow will disappear,” she said. “That we’ll all start getting rid of the winter blues.”
It might not prompt her to buy something summery right yet, particularly bulky patio furniture, but it has her thinking about it — her five-year-old already put in a request for a slide set she spotted in this week’s flyers.
Charlie Jerrett has kept his barbecue shoveled out and firing up grilled meals all winter long, and he said things like garden hoses are always useful in any season, including washing salt off vehicles in the winter.
But he didn’t think anyone would seriously consider buying anything plant related this early.
“Flowers, they are two and a half, three months away before we get to that,” said the Paradise resident.
At Home Depot, Josh Burton of St. John’s was scoping out prices on fire pits. He wants to be all ready to go for camping season before the arrival of his first child in May.
“When you see this stuff, it’s the light at the end of the tunnel … if there’s a light,” he said.
Store manager Pam Browne agreed people cheer up when they see the patio furniture and such come out.
“You are dreaming about spring and summer. … It’s planting a seed,” she said.
They’ve sold some sets, but the real sales gear up around April.
And while the store also retains some winter products like shovels and salt, the challenge is some manufacturers have reached their seasonal manufacturing quotas on items like snowblowers, so those can be somewhat harder to source.
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