Seattle businesses say short notice for multi-day planned outages led to revenue losses

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Multiple businesses in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District said they were given short notice for planned power outages between Sept. 14 and 17.

“On the modest side, I think we lost $6,000 over the course of four days, and that’s a lot for a small business,” said Yen, manager of Gan Bei Eatery & Bar.

Yen showed KIRO 7 physical notices from Seattle City Light that were dated only 1-2 days before the outages happened.

She said the revenue loss she’s calculated so far doesn’t even include food, and she hopes Seattle City Light can provide compensation.

“I believe it was poor planning on their part,” Yen said.

The outages spanned a few blocks north of Gan Bei, also affecting Tabletop Village.

“Had to hire a friend for security, and I also had to stay here the last four nights,” said Brian Myers, owner of Tabletop Village.

Myers said his game shop brings many families to the CID for events, but he had to close earlier due to the outages.

While he understands Seattle City Light’s outages are for long-term improvements, he also feels for fellow businesses who suffered unexpected losses.

“It was very, very much a big inconvenience that probably could have been avoided with better communication,” Myers said.

In an email from Seattle City Light, it says in part:

“I would like to start by apologizing for any inconvenience you experienced. We recognize the importance of notifying customers in advance of a planned outage. Seattle City Light has a detailed process for managing planned outages, including customer notifications. Our team followed that process, but our software provided an incomplete picture of those who would be impacted, which led to missed notifications. Unfortunately, we did not catch this discrepancy in our review process before implementing the outages last week.”

We thank you for bringing this important issue to our attention. We are taking action to correct this error.

The letter also included a link for impacted businesses to file a claim requesting reimbursement for losses, injuries, or damages.

For now, the lights are back on at CID businesses, and establishments like Gan Bei and Tabletop Village continue to provide late-night options for customers.

“It’s a really good community down here, everyone looks out for each other,” Yen said. “It’s actually really nice; there’s a lot of culture here.”