Power outages hit small businesses in Clinton Township hard: 'Like living in a 3rd-world country'

Small businesses doing the best they can amid power outage in Macomb County

"Mom and pop" shops have a much smaller profit margin and feel the impact of power outages more than most.

CLINTON TWP., Mich. (FOX 2) - According to DTE Energy, most of the customers impacted by Tuesday’s storms and outages have their power restored, except for a few businesses.

There are a few in Clinton Township with their fingers crossed, hoping the lights will flicker on soon.

At Groesbeck and Carlier the traffic lights just turned back on and vehicles are moving much smoother than an hour ago. A good sign for local businesses.

Giuseppe Tocco is a tattoo artist at Beyond the Chair Tattoo Studio.

"I assumed they’d get it up quicker with the (traffic) light being out, but here we are, sans power," he said.

Tuesday evening’s storms were so intense that it knocked out power for 330,000 homes and businesses, including Tocco's business in Clinton Township.

"One of our tattoo artists was tattooing a friend of hers," he said. "She actually ended up finishing that tattoo by phone flashlight and they came out great. I was really proud of her."

Tocco says since they had no power all the artists had to reschedule their appointments.

The business had no power on Wednesday and none on Thursday and the impact is already hitting their pockets.

"Financially it can be a big hit if those appointments don’t reschedule," he said. "I mean, you’re talking hundreds of dollars. Everyone out there knows how much a tattoo costs and that is a big hit to us and the shop."

They weren't the only ones hit.

All of the businesses on Groesbeck and Carlier Street had no power, including a hair salon and liquor store.

Signs were put up to let customers know.

Even businesses further down on Groesbeck Highway were impacted - and all on the same side of the road.

The other side of the street was fine.

"It’s been crazy, it’s been insane," said Ali Shamel. "It feels like we’re living in a third-world country."

Shamel is the owner of Smoke Shop 993 and says Tuesday the lights flickered and since then, the power has been out.

"Nothing works, basically, nothing works," he said.

FOX 2: "The cash register, lights?"

"Nothing," he said.

And handling transactions have been different.

"Sometimes we do cash only," Shamel said. "That’s about it. Only cash. No credit cards. Just cash.

FOX 2: "And how has that been?

"We manage," he said.

According to the DTE map, 97 percent of customers impacted by Tuesday's outage have their power restored.

Both Tocco and Shamel are hoping for the same.

"We’d like to get in, get back to work. it’s that time of the year, summertime when everyone wants those tattoos," Tocco said. "This is our busy season."

Within the last few hours we seen several DTE trucks go by, so that's likely good news for them.