Football fans packed Tallahassee this weekend as Florida State University and Florida A&M University kicked off their football season, and local businesses in College Town felt it at the register.
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Tallahassee businesses see big boost as FSU and FAMU kick off home football schedules
At Little Masa, General Manager Holden Giles says the return of students can be just as important or even more important than the games themselves.
“Of course, in some ways, the move-in weeks so mid-August is crazier than home football games. Because, like I said, we’re not selling, you know, booze and hard liquor. We don’t really have a party scene at Little Masa. We’re closing at 10:00. And so, in some ways, we’re busier when everyone’s moving in because they don’t have any food at the house. You know, they’re going out to eat every meal, families in town,” Giles said.
Giles says the restaurant has also built a local customer base to help get through the slower months.
At BLND, a local smoothie and sandwich shop, staff member Roberto Rivera, says the return of students has them moving at a much faster pace.
“Summer was a ghost town. It was a straight ghost town…I would come in and be like making one sandwich every hour, compared to now, it’s been like 20, 30, 40 sandwiches an hour,” Rivera said.
For businesses like Isabellas Pizzeria, co-founder Elvaro Jimenez says even the final score can affect how much business they see.
“The team wins, we can see people coming, celebrating, hanging out, eating. When the team loses, then people just say, ‘Hey, let’s go home,’ and kind of hurt the businesses, because we prep for those days. We have to prep for food. We have to make sure we have food to sell. We have to make dough. We have to staff for the games. And usually when we lose, customers just want to go home,” Jimenez said.
Most local businesses say they are used to slow summers and have learned to adapt by cutting business hours and staffing hours, all to gear back up for the fall, college students, and game days.
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