These shops have been heavily impacted by a sharp decline in customer flow due to the park closure. Merchants have laid off their employees and are losing thousands of dollars due to the closure. The shutdown is having a critical effect on NPS concessioners. The center includes several private vendors who sell mountain crafts and art work. The Peaks of Otter Lodge, a concession operation in Virginia, had to lay off 75 employees just before the holidays.
People come from all over the country to work the winter season in Yellowstone National Park.
Many don't have enough money to get home if they don't work. Everglades was entering its busy visitor season at the time of the shutdown and was forced to evict hundreds of campers from the already-full campgrounds. The park normally would have about 50,000 visitors during the last two weeks in December. The marina, lodge, and boat rental concession at Flamingo laid off 165 employees. Businesses at Everglades City, the park's western gateway, are feeling a severe economic pinch from the shutdown.