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Continued from page 36 3HUPDPHQW(\HODVK(\HEURZ7LQW.LW put plastic over the windows. Our freight forwarders took the trailers out to JFK [International Airport]. In the end, it was all kind of ironic in that our warehouse didn't really get hit this time. But JFK, where we'd stored much of our inventory, was hit extremely hard. Thankfully, our trailers were fine, and we were able to get them back to the warehouse with the inventory intact." In the city, the approaching storm made business as usual an impossibility. C.O. Bigelow prides itself on staying open late for customers who are in need of prescriptions and medications, but had to close its store in preparation. "The day of the storm, we had a small staff on hand, and I ended up sending them home early," notes Ginsberg. "We put plastic over the windows and tried to batten things down as much as possible. At 8 p.m., we lost power. We are primarily a drugstore with prescription medications on hand, which means we normally have armed guards at our store every night. The darkness and minimal police presence made for a rather scary night." Ginsberg ended up getting a generator so that the store could open by the Friday after the storm. "We were without power Tuesday through Thursday. We were able to get the generator going on Friday, but still had to close early because it was incredibly loud, like a [Boeing] 747. We got power back on Saturday. Being able to reopen was a huge concern, as many of our customers are elderly people who rely on us for their prescriptions. Our beauty revenue took a back seat to making sure we were able to take care of the customers who needed their medications." Birchbox While brick-and-mortar stores struggled with damage to their buildings and lack of power, online stores did not escape the chaos. Birchbox, an ecommerce site that provides consumers with the best in new beauty products, also had to deal with the fallout from Sandy. Founded two years ago, Birchbox was created by co-owners Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, who met at Harvard Business School and decided to create a site that offered brands the opportunity to get their name out to consumers who could sample new products for a small fee. The business has grown quickly and is now a very popular shopping site. 40 February 2013 | beautystorebusiness.com "The week before the storm, Katia and I were at a conference in Mexico," says Barna. "We received emails from our office manager in New York, discussing personal preparation and precautionary measures. Our employees' personal safety came first. We have a lot of younger employees, and we wanted to make sure they [took] this seriously. We stayed in touch with our warehouse, and we put a plan in place to stay in constant contact with our customers while we tried to keep our business going." Birchbox shut down its offices on Monday in anticipation of the storm, and lost cell-phone service later that night. Barna and Beauchamp were both without power, but were able to stay in contact with their employees. "Many of our uptown and Brooklyn employees became a home base for other employees," states Barna. "We had customer-service employees working from home, answering emails and contacting customers as well as contacting other employees. Thankfully, our warehouse never lost power, but due to the transportation situation, the warehouse did have to close for a few days." Birchbox's warehouse reopened by the end of the week, but was understaffed because workers had no power and were unable to commute. "The great thing about being an ecommerce business is [that] we never had to shut down entirely," notes Barna. "We were able to keep our customers advised of what was going on, and while we did delay some of our marketing promotions, we were able to stay open and in contact with both our product partners and customers." 3floz.com 3floz.com, another online store, dealt with shipping issues as well. Launched in 2010 by self-proclaimed beauty junkies Alexi Mintz and Kate Duff, 3floz.com was created to bring travel-size, TSA-friendly high-end beauty and grooming products to a single location for consumers. Mintz says they started hearing about the storm about a week before it hit. "Like everyone else, we watched and waited. We wanted to make sure we could keep our customers abreast of how the storm might affect our shipping." While their offices lost power and water, Mintz says their problems were minimal in comparison to what others had to deal with. "Once the storm hit, we