Bars and restaurants see increase; retail businesses see protesters drive off customers

By Kate Elizabeth Queram Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — As thousands of protesters descended on Capitol Square this winter to try to halt the passage of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, local business owners in the downtown district saw opportunity.

“Traditionally, February and March are slower months … but this was a really good boost for bars and restaurants,” said Peter McElvanna, proprietor and general manager of The Cooper’s Tavern on West Mifflin Street on Capitol Square. “People needed to eat, drink or to stay warm.”

The tavern was one of dozens of downtown establishments that saw business spike in February and March, when thousands protested Walker’s union reform measure in the Capitol.

But the protests weren’t positive for all businesses, particularly those outside the food-service industry, McElvanna said.

“It sort of sucked if you own any other kind of business,” he said. “I know some beauty salons had issues with people canceling appointments, because they couldn’t get parking, that kind of thing.”

Owners of retail businesses, including Patrick Blake of State Street’s Shoo Inc. shoe and clothing store, declined to comment on the protests. But Peg Scholtes, whose Capitol Kids store sells toys, books and children’s clothing, said February’s demonstrations had a mostly neutral effect on her business.

“It did keep a lot of our regular customers away, because there were a lot of people outside and not a lot of parking,” she said. “But on the other hand, a lot of people were here, who wouldn’t have come in otherwise. So it’s a trade-off.”

To get protesters in the door, Scholtes offered complimentary bottled water and no-purchase-necessary use of the store’s restroom. She then capitalized on the foot traffic by selling “Solidarity” T-shirts in adult and children’s sizes, as well as “Teach me how to protest” tees in children’s and infant sizes.

Even now, months after the largest of the demonstrations died off, the shirts continue to sell well, she said.

“We just sold our 2,000th ‘Solidarity’ shirt,” Scholtes said. “A lot of those were given at baby showers this spring.”

But although protests continued into mid-June, the lion’s share of increased business occurred during winter months, McElvanna said.

Springtime protests, most notably the “Walkerville” tent city, had a negligible effect on customer traffic, though McElvanna said that by that point, some patrons were tiring of the constant demonstrations.

“There were always people out there with drums and horns,” McElvanna said. “It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t help … at some point, it’s 10 p.m. on a Friday night and you’ve got some idiot blowing on a vuvuzela on the street. It’s just like, enough, we get the point.”

The union-reform law that drew the protesters, which takes effect Wednesday, increases the amount state employees must contribute to their health-care costs and pension funds while limiting collective bargaining to wages only.

In addition to clustering in Capitol Square during the day, many protesters camped under the Capitol rotunda or stayed in the streets at night, presenting businesses with a unique opportunity to capitalize on the crowds.

Some, like Scholtes at Capitol Kids, displayed signs of support in windows to show solidarity with the protesters. The move paid off for the business on South Carroll Street.

“For awhile, we had a sign that (Madison Teachers Inc.) gave us that said, ‘We support working families,’” said Scholtes, who has roughly 13 employees, the majority of whom work part time. “And our mascot bear had a protest T-shirt on.”

Other business owners, like The Cooper’s Tavern’s McElvanna, let the protesters spread the word about their businesses.

“My wife is a state employee,” said McElvanna, who oversees 71 employees. “I’m quite the talker, to be honest, and once they found out we were a working family, people told their friends and it just spread from there.”

Ian’s Pizza on State Street may have hit the jackpot in the word-of-mouth sweepstakes. Several days into the February protests, the restaurant was inundated with calls from out-of-state customers wanting to buy pizza for the protesters.

“We would take pizza outside, saying, ‘Joe from California bought you guys pizza!’ ” said Staci Fritz, the pizza store’s manager. Fritz estimated that during an eight-day period, the restaurant churned out more than 8,000 pizzas, or close to 64,000 slices of pie.

And beyond posting order and protest updates on the Ian’s Pizza Facebook page, Fritz said, the restaurant did not promote itself to protesters.

“It was all word-of-mouth,” she said. “We didn’t display signs; we stayed as neutral as possible. Our stance all along was, ‘We’re pro-pizza. We’re pro-democracy.’ We have 30-some people that work here, and I don’t know what their politics all are.”