Home-improvement companies are raking in huge paydays in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
“Business is literally booming,” Eddie Strzelecki, 22, who works at the home supplies store Doody’s in Sheepshead Bay, said yesterday.
“I guess you could say there’s a silver lining, but it’s dim because of all the people put out by the storm. The only good thing has come in the form of more business for local stores like us.”
Strzelecki said the small company could double its sales by the end of the month.
Among the hot items are home heaters, flashlights, contractor bags, tubing and gas funnels.
Staten Island home inspector Larry Ubell said the storm gave the construction industry “a shot in the arm.”
But, he added, some companies are taking advantage of the desperate need by inflating prices on some major appliances by 80 percent.
“Business has definitely picked up. It’s a shame we are getting more business in this fashion,” said Allen Goldstein, 62, who owns Eastern Plumbing Sales on Coney Island Avenue.
Rebuilding after Sandy will help the national GDP, said Bernard Baumohl, chief economist of the Economic Outlook Group in Princeton, NJ.