For some companies in town hardware stores, pizza-delivery shops and others that feed off foul weather there’s no business like snow business.

For others, there’s no business at all.

A constant stream of pizza delivery calls keeps Troy Green, owner of Domino's Pizza, 832 Iowa, busy as he and his staff handle the onslaught of winter weather orders. Lunch sales Wednesday rivaled those of a Super Bowl, Green said, and he expects orders to stay hot as the weather stays cold and icy possibly through this Sunday's NFL championship game.

NCS Pearson, the data-processing powerhouse with more than 400 employees in the East Hills Business Park, shut down its operations at 10 a.m. Wednesday after getting a call from the company’s site manager who was tracking the weather from NCS offices in Arlington, Va.

“He wanted to make sure everyone could get home safely,” an NCS manager said.

The storm that coated the Lawrence area with freezing rain, sleet and snow Wednesday left many managers to wrestle with difficult, and potentially costly, issues.

At Hallmark Cards, plant manager Mark Garrett notified his managers about plans for handling the storm: All 900 employees were to be told to use their best judgment, and that those staying home would not be penalized for using vacation time or taking an unpaid leave of absence to weather the ice from home.

About 20 percent to 25 percent took the company up on the offer. Some stayed at home to care for children whose classes were canceled for the day; others simply decided the roads were too slick, he said.

“We tell them, ‘Get here when you can, if you can. Don’t worry about being late,'” said Garrett, who doesn’t expect any letdown in the plant’s weekly production of 11 million cards. “Our primary concern is for the safety of our employees.”

Other businesses struggled to line up employees or contract crews to clear sidewalks and parking lots, helping employees and customers as much as possible.

Some businesses such as Second Chance Children’s Clothing, 15 W. Ninth St. didn’t bother to open at all.

“I don’t want to put my employees at risk for maybe two or three customers,” said Amy Laughlin, the store’s manager, who couldn’t leave her home south of Lawrence because of an ice-coated driveway.

The hot market for Ice Melt, sand and snow shovels kept several other businesses busy Wednesday.

Cottin’s Hardware and Rental, 1832 Mass., and Westlake Ace Hardware, 601 Kasold Drive, each sold out of Ice Melt by early Wednesday afternoon well before the full blanket of ice and snow had hit.

It signaled quite a change for the season, which had been marked more by warmth and sunshine than by cold snaps and icy pellets.

Westlake had 26.6 tons of Ice Melt on hand before the storm, but it was gone by noon Wednesday.

“I can’t get any more until next week,” said Dick Clark, an assistant manager. “We were kind of concerned whether we could get rid of it all. Now we can’t get any more.

“Crazy.”

Crazy best described the atmosphere Wednesday afternoon at Domino’s Pizza, 832 Iowa. Lunch sales were 10 times higher than on a normal day, as Lawrence residents hunkered down at home and left the driving to the store’s five delivery drivers.

“We root for three things around here: the Chiefs to do well, the Jayhawks to do well and for it to snow and rain,” said Troy Green, owner of the Domino’s franchise and brother of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Trent Green. “Weather affects our sales quite a bit. It’s been like a Super Bowl.”