Conrad Rollins who owns Conrad's Sales and Service in Abbot has been in the business for about 36 years. "If winters come early, they tend to leave early," Rollins said. "A late start to winter usually means we¹ll have lots of snow late in the season. It all evens out."

Rollins sells the Polaris line of snowmobiles and said that business has been brisk. "We've sold over 100 snowmobiles so far," Rollins said. "We have to order our sleds way ahead of time, and the way things are going we might run out of them before the holidays are over." He said that if that happens, he can go to other dealers for their inventory. ''We help each other out," Rollins said. "That's the nature of the business.''

Dave Kerr from Fred's Body Shop in Greenville concurred with Rollins. "Sales have been going very well," Kerr said. ''We sell the Yamaha line and we've made a number of pre-season sales. People are still coming in every day and looking,'' he added.

Doreen Jones from Jackman Power Sports in Jackman said that sales have been about normal despite the lack of snow. ''A lot of older people are getting back into the sport now that their kids are grown,'' she said. ''They are looking at the newer models which have more features than the ones they may have had 15 or 20 years ago.''

Jackman Power Sports sells Yamaha, Ski-Doo,Polaris and Arctic Cat. ''We've already sold three or four of the Arctic Cat 4-stroke touring sleds,'' Jones said. ''We haven¹t had the opportunity to try one yet, but they should do well. They offer a quieter ride and are nice looking sleds.''

Paul Fichtner, who owns Big Lake Equipment, Inc. in Greenville is also pretty philosophical about the snowless weather. ''Sales are pretty much normal for this time of year,'' he said. ''Arctic Cat is doing a second production run of their 4-stroke linem and we should have some sent to us soon.'' He said he was not concerned about the current lack of snow. ''Not to worry,'' he said. ''It'll be here soon enough!''