When snow falls, some see the beauty in a winter wonderland.
Others see dollar signs -- like Wesley Smith, the president of Quality Handyman Services.
His company does two things: handy work and snow removal.
"The handyman service has been a little slow, but snow has really helped to make up for that," Smith said. "We've been very busy."
Like those at many local home repair and landscaping companies, Smith's plow has been collecting dust for several years. That all changed in December.
"It's a lucrative business, there's no doubt about that," Smith said. "Also, with the employees it's able to keep them busy as well and not sitting around. A lot of people don't want things done inside their home when there's 12 inches of snow outside."
Of course, when it snows, certain business predictably pull in the cash, like video rental stores and grocery stores.
A store manager at Kroger in Cave Spring said the store sees its second highest sales of the year, trailing only behind Christmas.
In fact, the manager says Thanksgiving doesn't pull in as many sales as snow events and this year has been unprecedented.
"I've been in the Roanoke Valley for about 13 years and we've never seen anything like this," said Chuck Fisher, associate manager at Kroger in Cave Spring. "It's interesting, because two or three inches of snow used to bring a lot of people in, but when you're getting forecasts up to 8, 9, 10, 15 and 20 inches that really scares some people."
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