Some businesses suffer, others thrive during extreme heat

The summer scorcher is hurting those who have to live and work in the heat, but also those trying to run their business. For some businesses in Palm Springs, the heat was just too hot to handle.

Todd Flood owns Maracas on Palm Canyon. Monday morning, he got the call no business owner wants to get.

“The manager said our AC was not operating correctly, so I came down and the dining room AC was just done,” Flood said.

After an inspection by the air conditioning company, no luck.

“I thought maybe I could use the patio, but even that, no one is going to sit outside in those temperatures,” Flood said.

They were forced to close and on Tuesday, still no air conditioning.

Video: check out the businesses that are thriving

But other businesses thrived in the high temperatures. Patricia Nelson owns Great Shakes in Palm Springs, and said business was booming Monday.

“When it’s hot, nothing satisfies like ice cream,” Nelson said.

But she said they weren’t immune to heat-related issues.

“We did we had our air condition go out Sunday night and pretty soon the shakes starting melting before the customers got them. We had to close shop and luckily we got a local repair guy come in and put us back to business,” Nelson said.

And that’s when things picked up.

“We had customers all day long. And last night we has somewhat of a line even, which was surprising for a Monday night in June in Palm Springs and I attribute it to the hot record heat,” Nelson said.