NEW YORK — Shovels, salt and sleds are in high demand as New Yorkers prepare for a major storm that's on its way to the city.

The snow is expected to start falling Wednesday afternoon and will not end until Thursday morning.

The city could see eight to 14 inches before it's all over.

Inside Tarzian Hardware in Park Slope, Brooklyn, customers could be seen eyeing the essentials and figuring out what to grab before the snowfall arrives.

"A lot of people are going to have to clean in front of their sidewalk and then up the stoops. Yeah, so they can't just let it sit around, it looks like it's gonna be cold afterwards so they have to clean it up," said John Ciferno, the owner Tarzian Hardware.

Ciferni said, after all these years in business, they know what their customers are looking for when a storm is coming. 

"We've got sleds, shovels, ice choppers and ice melt obviously," said Ciferni, whose grandparents started the business in 1921. 

"One news site is like an inch, the other one says 14 inches, history tells us it will be nothing but we'll see what happens. Hopefully we'll get some good snow in the park so they can have some fun," said one customer, who was searching for the perfect sled for a five-year-old eager to hit the hills of Prospect Park.

Bill Redmond, another customer, was in the market for a shovel for his home and his car, though he's not among those excited for a big snow in the five boroughs. 

"The city is not good at dealing with this in normal times, God knows what will happen now, so it will probably be a giant cluster for two or three days and then it will all be over,” said Redmond. 

John Ciferni said he expects this to be good for his bottom line, in what has been a horrendous year for small businesses, but recognizes that the snow will not benefit some of his fellow business owners in the neighborhood. 

"It's definitely good for hardware stores and people selling ice stuff. I'm not so sure it's going to be for the rest of the small businesses,” said Ceferni, referring to restaurants that can no longer do indoor dining because of COVID-19 restrictions, and now losing outdoor dining in some cases because of the storm. 

Indeed, this week's expected winter storm is presenting restaurant owners with a whole new set of headaches.

With indoor dining now shut down until further notice, their outdoor dining space may be in jeopardy when the snow arrives Wednesday into Thursday.

After issuing a Winter Operations Advisory, the Sanitation Department has now implemented a Snow Alert instead. 

An advisory would have allowed outdoor dining to continue as long as operators took necessary safety precautions, while a snow alert means a stop to outdoor dining.

While a Snow Alert means restaurants must remove and secure any outdoor furniture, the city has not asked restaurants to remove any barriers or the structures themselves.

As for Ciferni, he says because of the lack of big snowfalls over the past couple of years, some of the items on sale have been hanging around for a while, but he expects them to move over the next couple of days.