Workers leave early; malls close

By early afternoon Tuesday, several of Omaha's larger employers were already sending or making plans to send employees home in the face of worsening weather conditions and a suggestion from the city that they consider releasing employees on a staggered schedule.

"I would expect that by mid-afternoon, most non-essential people will be gone," said Donna Kush, a spokeswoman from Union Pacific, which has about 4,100 employees in the Omaha area.

After fighting accumulating snow in parking lots and on sidewalks, some stores have cried uncle. Both Shadow Lake Towne Center in Papillion Village Pointe Shopping Center in west Omaha will close at 4 p.m.

Village Pointe management, however, noted that some stores and restaurants might keep their doors open. Patrons are advised to call ahead. The shopping center is scheduled to open again at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Westroads Mall and Oak View Mall joined Mall of the Bluffs in announcing that they would close at 5 p.m. today.

The number of businesses announcing closures picked up with the pace of the snow.

Kevin Langin, spokesman at First National, said Omaha and Lincoln area branches would close at 3 p.m. Tuesday. All Wells Fargo bank branches in Omaha closed at 2 p.m.

Borsheims also will close at 3 p.m., and all Mutual First Federal Credit Union locations closed at 2 p.m.

Mutual of Omaha didn't set an offical closing time, said spokesman Jim Nolan, but managers had been given discretion to release employees early.

"We've asked our managers to use good judgment as they look at the travel conditions and make appropriate accommodations so employees can leave early so they can get home safely."

Lisa Olson at inforGROUP said supervisors were working with their individual departments to make arrangements to accommodate their employees, and that offices would close at 2:30 p.m.

The storm hits at a critical time for retailers worried about losing an irreplaceable shopping day just ahead of Christmas.

"At this point, we're not closing," said Westroads manager Jim Sadler. "We may make a decision later in the afternoon."

Sadler said a decision to close early would apply to all three General Growth properties - Westroads Mall, Oak View Mall and Mall of the Bluffs in Council Bluffs.

At Shadow Lake Towne Center in Papillion, spokeswoman Alicia Peters said there were no plans to close at this point, and the mall was "fighting the snow," trying to stay ahead snow accumulation in the parking lot and on sidewalks.

"We constantly track the weather and see what happens, but we try to stay open for people, and we'll do our best," she said.

Bob Batt of Nebraska Furniture Mart wasn't expecting school closings to translate into a bump in traffic.

"When it's slick and icy, locals don't come and out-of-towners really don't come," he said. "Half of our business comes from outside the city of Omaha."

Bad weather can be very hard on business, Batt said, especially this time of year.

"When you lose a snow day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you never get it back," he said. "If this thing turns into what they say it's going to do tonight and for tomorrow, it's a definite hit on Christmas.

"So we'll have a snow sale."

People are still coming into the store today, he said.

"We have emergency plans and snow days, and we have a whole book on that. So we're monitoring it every hour, and if we feel it's bad, we'll close."

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