A sticky situation Wednesday at Jonnies Sticky Buns -- a place where owner Jon McPhail uses city water for cleaning, baking and coffee.

He boiled pots of water all day long to keep the cafe open.

"It's a slower season in general for a lot of businesses, so any sort of hiccup in the flow of business can be hard for a lot of people," McPhail said.

At Starbucks locations across the city a different story. Some stores didn’t open Wednesday morning because of Winnipeg's water woes. Others stayed open but weren’t serving coffee.

A Starbucks spokesperson said most stores had re-opened by noon and were serving brewed coffee, pastries and packaged food and drinks.

Other chains like Tim Hortons and McDonald’s continued brewing coffee.

But some menu options which required city water were not available.

The boiled water advisory left dental offices hooked into the city's distribution system scrambling for water.

"It can really throw a wrench into things for dentists," said Dr. Brent Wong of Shine Dental.

He was forced to find different sources of water for regular procedures like cleanings and fillings.

With a large stock of clean water in supply, his office stayed open but he said it would’ve been difficult for others who couldn’t find water.

“I can see how something like this would affect a lot of dental offices for sure,” Wong said.

“You don't want to put the public at risk."

At schools, fountains normally bustling with activity were instead covered in garbage bags and had parents, teachers and students making different plans.

Schools asked students to bring in their own water to class.

Victory School, a kindergarten to Grade 5 school in the Seven Oaks School Division, bought flats of bottled water for those who forgot.

Grade 3 student Xander Boulard was thankful his school provided the bottled water.

“I actually forgot when we were leaving this morning. We just found out so we forgot to bring water," Boulard said.

That water wasn't easy to find.

Shelves were emptied as big stores sold out of bottled water.

Others, like the Grant Park Co-Op, got an emergency shipment to replenish supplies.

"I've never seen anything like it, we're sourcing out water from other provinces,” said Grant Park Co-Op Manager, Larry Fortes.

“We're trying to get it in to serve the Winnipeg community,” he said.

"It's been crazy. It's selling as fast as we brought it in."

For businesses whose bottom lines took a hit from the boil water advisory -- no promises of any compensation from the city.

Mayor Brian Bowman said Wednesday that’s an issue which would have to be discussed by city council.