Festival drums up plenty of business
As published on page one of the Oct. 21, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.
They're coming.
In less than 24 hours, Keene's population will swell as pumpkin peepers from near and far descend on downtown for the city's 21st annual Pumpkin Festival.
"I got extra toilet paper, because our bathroom gets a lot of use," said Judy Rogers, owner of the Main Street coffee shop Prime Roast.
Rogers is a veteran, now in her third decade of serving coffee to jack-o'-lantern fans.
Extra paper products, more baking, more coffee, and reinforcements in the form of former employees who make guest appearances for one day of the year -- "it just seems so old hat to me now," she said.
That is not to downplay the annual event, which draws tens of thousands of festival-goers.
"It's our busiest day of the year, no question," Rogers said.
David A. Sutherland, owner of Ingenuity Country Store on Central Square, is also going into the fray with a little more experience -- this is the gift store's second year in its downtown location.
Last year the store's business was up six-fold from previous Pumpkin Festivals, when it was in the Colony Mill Marketplace on West Street, he said.
"We were thrilled. Dollar-wise it was better than any Black Friday we've had," he said, referring to the Friday after Thanksgiving, the informal start of the Christmas shopping season.
Scarves and mittens were the biggest sellers during last year's gourd extravaganza, Sutherland said. "People just cleaned us out."
A full staff will work all day, he said, and friends and family who want to be part of the event have volunteered to help out assisting customers in the aisles.
"Our experience last year was our registers were ringing from the time the doors opened," Sutherland said.
Some local businesses revise their offerings for the day, given crowds that run as high as 70,000 people.
McCue's Billiards and Sports Lounge on Emerald Street will serve a pared-down menu, with some of the items that are more time consuming to make unavailable during the hours of the festival, Lisa Lazzaro, the kitchen manager, said.
The bar has hired extra runners to transport food from the kitchen to tables, taking that responsibility away from the waitresses for the day, she said.
"We'll be filled to capacity -- it's about 300 patrons at a given time. As people leave we let people in," Lazzaro said.
Other businesses have made arrangements to temporarily expand their capacity for the day.
Ramunto's Pizza, a Main Street business gearing up for its first Pumpkin Festival, has permission from City Hall to set up a tent and barbecue grill outside for the day.
And Ye Goodie Shoppe, also on Main Street, will set up a table in back of the business to give visitors another spot to purchase candy.
The pumpkin rush can be a stressful time, according to business owners.
Prime Roast employees have a costume theme every year to lighten the mood on what can be a long, hard day, Rogers said. This year the theme is a pajama party. And she usually supplements the tip jar out of her own pocket because out-of-towners are less generous with their change than coffee shop regulars, she said.
But after his experience last year, Sutherland says the extra work is worth it.
"Any business who's willing to stay open down here will benefit," he said.
tagged with: business, Keene N.H., pumpkin festival
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