‘Can’t run a business like this’: Tales from the blackout in Sonoma

Public safety power shutoffs are disruptive, frustrating, and - if you’re in PG&E public relations - necessary. But for local businesses, they are also an economic threat to the bottom line.

With the Kincade fire in northern Sonoma County still uncontained, and property losses from that conflagration yet to be tallied, the financial losses for local businesses from vast planned power outages may prove to be almost as punishing.

Some have lost inventory as critical equipment powered down. Others have lost contracts as nervous clients pulled out. As the golden month of October - peak season in wine country - once again turns to ash, the solvency of Valley vendors large and small has been threatened.

At the Glen Ellen Grocery, owned and operated by Sonja Baweja since 2008, the power cut has had immediate and severe economic consequences. “We lost about $10,000 in inventory during the last one,” Bawela said from her store, where she was found over the weekend manning the register in the dark.

Following the Oct. 8 Public Safety Power Shutoff, or PSPS, Bawela’s husband purchased a $900 generator from Costco, which was connected to one of the store’s seven freezers and a single flickering, fluorescent bulb. But all of the ice cream and other dairy had to be thrown out, all the deli meats and cheeses went off, and all the perishables normally stocked at the store were lost.

“Insurance won’t pay,” Bawela said. “Because PG&E gave notice of the PSPS, the losses are not covered by our policy.”

Absorbing such a loss is difficult, Bawela said. “We don’t make the kind of money that we can afford losses like these. The beer guy will come next week, expecting his check. The wine and grocery guys will come, too. There’s a chain of people, all affected. We just can’t run a business like this.”

Local restauranteur Sondra Bernstein’s businesses have been similarly affected by PG&E’s recurring power cuts. The Fig Café in Glen Ellen has been dark for days, and a house fire Sunday night disrupted power to the Fig catering facilities on Eighth Street East. “We’ll produce whatever we can out of the downtown restaurant for clients who don’t cancel, but people read the news and it looks really scary,” Bernstein said.

Looking ahead, Bernstein is worried about the feasibility of two weddings and a “winemaker dinner” scheduled for the weekend, as well as the hard and soft costs of lost inventory and employee wages if those events cancel. “If we don’t get catering open, we’ll lose between $100,000 and $150,000. Last time it went dark, payroll was $20,000 lower. It’s hard on everybody,” Bernstein said.

Collateral economic penalties from the latest wine country disaster have trickled down to the gig economy, too, with local Airbnb hosts reporting a rash of recent cancellations. “I had three cancellations in the last power shutdown,” said Laura Anderson, who depends on the income generated by her Sonoma Valley guest house to supplement her earnings as a massage therapist. “It’s a huge economic impact for the whole state.”

Over the weekend, one Airbnb guest pulled the plug on a November reservation, explaining that media reports were projecting catastrophe. “Multiple factors have helped us make our decision not to travel so close to a natural disaster,” wrote Michele from Westminster, Colorado. “The Washington Post is describing the mass evacuations as ‘apocalyptic,’ and with the air quality, high winds and cut power, we just don’t feel comfortable coming to Sonoma.”

But during the latest PSPS, much of Sonoma’s downtown conducted business as usual, saved from the dark by fortuitous placement on PG&E’s power grid. There is a problem of perception, however, with out-of-town media commonly conflating the geographies of Sonoma County with the City of Sonoma.

And that is a large part of the problem, according to local businessman Garret Sathre, who owns West Wine Tours and West Handmade Burgers. “It’s a blessing and a curse, this shared name,” Sathre said. “Sonoma County is as big as Rhode Island, but the media make it extremely confusing for people. They have to do better. Protection of small businesses has to become something we strategize about.”

Sathre’s businesses seem to be at the epicenter of a perfect storm of bad luck, with the restaurant’s operations crippled by inconsistent power, and the wine tourists scared off by wildfire. “This has just smashed us,” Sathre said. “We had $6,000 in wine tour business canceled in the last 48 hours, and with the restaurant, it’s just momentum. It’s impossible to get the ball rolling when you don’t know if you’ll be in business day by day.”

Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO Mark Bodenhamer empathized with the tribulations local businesses people have suffered during recent PSPS events, and was concerned by PG&E’s seeming lack of culpability. “Frustrated is the word I would use,” Bodenhamer said. “Of course, safety needs to be first and foremost, but as we go into the next phase, PG&E has to do a better job conveying specific details so that people can plan, they need to invest in tech so that people can plan. Right now, it’s a day-by-day operation here at the Chamber. We get here in the morning, turn the key, and kind of see what happens.”

In the short term, the solution comes down to customer loyalty. “If three more families come in tonight, that’s what we need,” Sathre said.

But long-term solutions may prove more complex, as - after three straight years of destructive wildfire - October in wine country risks losing its allure. “We’re already thinking about what’s going to happen next year,” Bernstein said. “Can we find a way to get people more excited about March?”

One way or another, something’s got to give. “If this keeps happening, nobody’s going to stay in business,” warned Baweja. “Nobody can survive this, big or small.”

Contact Kate at kate.williams@sonomanews.com.