Impact of dust storms on downtown businesses

On days with strong winds and dust flying around and low visibility, do people shop in downtown?

ABC-7 spoke with businesses on El Paso Street to see if storm days impact their sales and foot traffic.

"Yeah less customers, people come and leave because of the dust in the air, and that's when sales go down," said Pablo Cordero, a shop employee, in Spanish.

Shops on that street usually display merchandise outside, whether it's sun hats stacked up, toys, mannequins lined up with dresses and jeans, or shoes.

These items by their doors attract people to take a look inside. When the weather hits El Paso hard, shops say putting the items back inside makes them lose customers.

Gabriela Garcia is an employee and she says all morning they've only had 10 customers come in, very low clientele compared to most days.

"We have to take down the merchandise outside, they'll fly away and get dirty," Garcia told ABC-7 in Spanish. "Seeing it outside attracts many people, they see what we have, and many times they'll think we're closed."

She said since most of March has dust storms, the shop remains open.

Garcia that days like these cause a decrease in sales, and she says it affects them a lot since they have to keep up with paying for the shop's rent and employees.