BEAUMONT, Texas — Multiple Southeast Texas businesses have had to make adjustments to turn a profit due to an abnormally rainy summer.
Southeast Texas is more than six inches above normal rainfall this year, and local businesses are struggling to make ends meet.
Due to a decrease in customers, car washes have had to offer specials on interior detailing services and extend their store hours to make up for money lost during the storms.
“We have tried to switch over to interior detail and give customers a rain check on the wash,” Joe Kennedy, owner of Texas Knucklehead Wash and Wax, said.
Texas Knucklehead Wash and Wax has had fewer customers due to the rain, and the company has had trouble paying their employees, Kennedy said.
“We cut back on hours,” he said. "We have not let anybody go."
Instead of paying employees hourly wages, employees get paid a percentage of a detailing job. The car wash has also extended business hours to seven days a week because of the lack of customers.
“I want the rain to stop,” Kennedy said.
Other businesses are also struggling to make ends meet due to the wet weather. Golf courses have had to close early daily due to rain flooding the fields.
“You do not have as many hitters coming out because it is not just the rain,” Stephany Fussell, Mulligans Golf Course employee, said. “Even when the rain stops, the ground is still wet. It is really bad.”
Mulligans Golf Course has had to close early on some days, but if customers leave because of the rain, they offer complementary rain checks.
Regardless of the weather-related struggles these businesses have faced, both owners said they plan to stick around for the light at the end of the tunnel.