Bonedale receives 2,000 more visitors due to Glenwood Springs’ power outage, data shows
Carbondale Beer Works poured more taps. Sopris Liquor and Wine scanned more bottles and cases. Peppino’s Pizza eventually had to turn away customers.
“We sold 30 to 40% more pizzas,” Peppino’s employee Andrew Gillies said. “We sold so much, we ran out of dough.”
Three thousand one hundred residents from Glenwood Springs to Silt were without power for hours on Saturday, May 16. According to Xcel Energy, the prolonged outage was caused by a “large foreign object,” possibly a tarp, colliding with transmission and distribution lines.
This meant folks not only couldn’t keep the lights on, many downvalley businesses did not have the otherwise routine ability to serve customers. Since power wasn’t restored until shortly before 9pm that Saturday, Carbondale servers and bartenders licked their wounds the following morning after accommodating the ensuing influx of Glenwood-based consumers driving down Highway 82 for a bite to eat, or perhaps a much-needed drink.
The unanticipated rush manufactured 2,000 more visitors to Carbondale compared to an average Saturday night, according to Pacer AI data gathered by Andrea Stewart, Carbondale Chamber of Commerce CEO and president.
“We definitely saw more people due to that,” Stewart said of Glenwood’s power outage.
The sudden rise in commerce comes as Carbondale battles typical off-season sales tax declines, with Stewart saying that some local businesses are doing well while others “are just hanging on.” Average monthly revenue from the town’s sales tax collections went from 92% and 97% in April and May to 108% and 118% in July, 2025 data provided by Carbondale Finance Director Ola Verploegh shows.
“While we do experience some seasonality, with slightly lower sales tax collections during the spring and fall months, our revenues are not nearly as seasonal as those of the upvalley communities,” Verploegh told The Sopris Sun.
Still, Carbondale Beer Works owner Patrice Fuller said the impromptu rush from that Saturday’s outage spurred about a 45% increase in sales and revenue compared to the same time last year. Doubling the business than a typical Saturday night, she called the rush “wild.”
“I was super stoked because I definitely needed the business,” Fuller said of having less customers due to off-season. “And it was nice seeing people come to Carbondale who don’t come very often.”
Sopris Liquor employee Kaya Isenhart was off that Saturday. Instead of manning the register, the Glenwood Springs resident said he spent his power-absent time listening to downloaded podcasts and reading National Geographic magazines in his car, which he also used to charge his dying phone after the power went out around 2pm.
“You drive by a place and it was shut down,” he said of Glenwood during the outage. Sopris Liquor, his employer, reported a modest $1,000 increase in sales that day. “City Market wasn’t available. That kind of sucked if you needed to get some groceries.”
For Gillies, in response to downvalley consumers coming to Carbondale amid that Saturday’s power outage, he smiled when he remembered just how busy everything became.
“Hope there’s another one,” he joked. “It was a fun Saturday.”
Carbondale’s 2025 sales tax collections data expressed as a percentage of average monthly revenue:
January: 87%
February: 82%
March: 92%
April: 92%
May: 97%
June: 108%
July: 118%
August: 107%
September: 163%
October: 65%
November: 75%
December: 115%