MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — A family business in Manatee County is investing in new equipment that they say will make them more prepared for storms.
What You Need To Know
- The Chop Shop suffered thousands of dollars worth of damage from Hurricane Milton
- Now, the family is buying generators and updating their preparations for this year’s storm season
- Owner Susan Higbee was worried she would have to close the shop after high winds from Milton left their mark
The financial impact of Hurricane Milton reached well into six figures, and The Chop Shop faced a long road to recovery.
Susan Higbee says she treats her customers there like family.
Higbee is the owner of the butcher shop and grocery store in Bradenton. It has been in her family since 1971, and she has spent a lot of time there.
“I mean in the store since I was 13,” she said.
Higbee took on the ownership role after her brother passed away in 2019. The future of the business is personal to her.
“Everything, everything. It’s my family’s legacy,” she explained.
But she was worried she would have to close the shop after high winds from Hurricane Milton left their mark.
“It was so devastating,” she said.
There was significant damage to the roof and A/C units. Their sign was impacted, too. The damage led to water intrusion, but the most expensive loss was actually the meat that couldn’t be saved because the power was out.
“Just product, probably $175,000 at least. At least that’s just product. Not counting the building, not counting the sign, not counting anything else,” she said.
That’s why she is buying new generators and had workers install a gas line this week, so in the future they will avoid losing both customers and product.
“We lost power for several days. We lost pretty much all of our inventory. The little bit that we could sell and that we gave away. Employees lost a lot of pay because we weren’t open,” she said.
Highbee wants to be prepared for future storms.
Because she knows as long as she has her family and her customers, The Chop Shop’s legacy in Bradenton will live on.
Julia Hazel
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