When Milwaukee was chosen to host the Republican National Convention, city leaders sold the event to local businesses as a singular economic boost.
That has proved true for some. As delegates descended on the city this week, charter buses have been full, hotels have been packed and some bars bustling. But good fortune has not spread evenly, and disappointed workers at some stores and restaurants said they had seen minimal foot traffic.
“Most of my customers are the people who work around here, so I think they are working remotely,” said Cheraty Par, the owner of an Awi Sushi location near the heavily fortified convention site. She increased staffing for the convention’s opening day and handed out menus on the sidewalk, but reported just a tenth of her usual lunch business.
For others, the convention brought a welcome influx of spending. At The New Fashioned, a restaurant steps from Fiserv Forum, home to the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team and the convention’s main stage, there were so many customers on Monday that the marketing director was tending bar.
“We were telling our team to be prepared for about the equivalent of one big Bucks game a day,” Marla Poytinger, the owner and chief executive of the restaurant’s parent company said on Tuesday. “Yesterday was the equivalent of about five Bucks games in one day. We were absolutely slammed.”
But in interviews at bars, restaurants and stores around town, that experience seemed more the exception than the norm.
Benihana, a steakhouse and sushi restaurant that announced extended hours for the convention, had few lunch customers on Monday. Takeout orders, a significant part of its business, were falling through. By 1:30 p.m., the assistant manager had sent some workers home. On Tuesday, a handwritten sign out front said the restaurant would be open only for dinner for the remainder of the convention.
“If you’re hoping for more business, it’s not really looking too good right now,” said Ashley Lawrence, the restaurant’s assistant manager.
The Milwaukee Public Market, a beloved local food court, was busy but not packed around lunchtime on Tuesday, with lanyard-wearing convention participants and U.S. Capitol Police officers among those checking out the vendors. Nearby, employees at retail stores in the Historic Third Ward, typically a busy area for tourists and locals, said business had been slower than usual since the convention began.
“Yesterday was eerie, it was slow,” Emily Breider, a clothing store clerk, said on Tuesday.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat who has embraced the Republican convention, acknowledged that some business owners were disappointed, though he said local vendors who set up stalls inside the security zone were doing well.
Mr. Johnson said he had encouraged convention attendees to venture out more into the city, and also urged Milwaukeeans who had been avoiding the convention area to return downtown and visit local businesses.
“While it’s absolutely true that millions and millions of dollars will be spent in connection with the convention,” Mr. Johnson said on Wednesday, “that money is not necessarily flowing through every single corner of the economy.”
At Mo’s Irish Pub, just outside the convention’s security perimeter, business was brisk. Most of the bar’s regular customers were not coming this week, but the convention traffic still led to a 30 percent increase in revenue.
“It’s a great week for us as far as planning and events and parties,” said Brent Perkins, the pub’s director of operations. “As soon as the Fiserv Forum lets out, everybody kind of floods in here. We’ll clear all these tables out, put up a D.J. and everybody just drinks and has fun until 4 a.m.”
In other parts of the city, many business owners saw little impact, or worse, a decline in business.
During the lunch hour on Tuesday, no one was eating at the Nomad World Pub in the city’s Lower East Side neighborhood. Tate Winckler, director of operations for the bar’s parent company, said he thought business was slow because many delegates were staying outside of Milwaukee given a limited supply of hotel rooms downtown, and because so many locals had decided to leave town for the week.
“Everyone wanted to avoid the traffic,” he said. “And there were concerns about protests, as well.” Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the city on Monday, but protests at the convention have been limited.
Bennie Smith, the owner of Daddy’s on Blue Mound, a soul food restaurant west of downtown, said he was still hoping for an uptick in business, perhaps from attendees who stayed in Milwaukee for the weekend. Even if that did not happen, Mr. Smith said, the convention was good for the city.
“It shows others,” he said, “that we can host big events.”
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