Sump Pump Sales Surge
By Jennifer Kavanaugh Source: Metro West Daily News

As the rain beat down for yet another day, requests for sump pumps trickled into some hardware stores yesterday, while others reported a deluge of demand for something, anything to get rid of unwanted water.

MetroWest so far has escaped the large-scale floods plaguing northeastern Massachusetts, but many local homeowners still have unwelcome water in their basements.

Asked if her store has seen heavy traffic, Stacey Cavallaro of Robinsons Ace Hardware in Hudson said she sold about 30 sump pumps over the last few days.

"That's a yes," the department manager said. "We ordered quite a few on Friday in anticipation of the weekend, and we hope to get more on Wednesday. I was trying to be ready."

Bob Genna, owner of Town Line Hardware in Sudbury, said heavy rain has pumped more business into his store over the last few days. By yesterday, he had sold out of sump pumps.

"It's brisk, shall we say," Genna said. And these customers arent overreacting, wanting to buy on the chance that they might have flooding, he said. "They need it."

As of yesterday morning, Holliston True Value Hardware had sold about five or six sump pumps, which cost between $50 and $150, said store manager Keith McKeown.

"It's probably about what we expected, maybe a little less," McKeown said. "A lot of people bought pumps last year for the October storm."

For those either afflicted or blessed with bad-weather amnesia, the October storm was the one that got national news attention because of fears a dam would break and wipe out the city of Taunton.

Employees at local stores said previous water disasters motivated people to get their pumps, and the business they're getting now is from people replacing failed equipment, or those who have moved and just inherited water problems.

"I think a lot more people have them, and are prepared," said Cavallaro, of the Hudson store. She has memories of flooding from a few years back, during which people stormed into the store for equipment. "Its not as chaotic."

May 15, 2006