While it isn’t yet clear who will come up on top of this week’s budget battle – Gov. Scott Walker or the protesters – there is one clear winner: downtown businesses.
“Usually, I recognize about 75 percent of customers,” said Matt Licata, store manager of Ancora Coffee. “Now, I recognize maybe ten percent.”
Licata said Ancora had been much busier than usual for the past few days, resulting in significantly greater profit for the store than expected this time of year. Licata said the crowds were pleasant, and it has been a positive experience for he and his staff.
Aaron Bruley, a sandwich maker who has worked at Subway for four months, said he sees about 300 to 400 people in the store on a regular day, but over the last four days it has been at least double or triple that amount. To accommodate the increase in business, about twice as many employees as usual were called in.
Bruley said Subway will typically bring in one truckload of food and produce a week. Since Monday, the store has had to bring in three additional trucks.
On Friday alone, the store had gone through more than 1,260 loaves of bread by 4 p.m.
Nick Stratman, general manager of Ian’s Pizza on State Street, said it has been “crazy busy, but it’s been a blast.”
Stratman said there have been people calling in from other states, including California, Connecticut and Nebraska, ordering pizza to be delivered to the masses.
As the protests in Madison have received international attention, people from Egypt, China, Korea, Netherlands and Germany have also called Ian’s to purchase slices to donate to protesters. As of Saturday, 450 whole pizzas have been delivered to the Capitol with 600 new pizzas being delivered Sunday.
Stratman said this was the first time something like this had happened at Ian’s and they had no procedure for it. The delivery drivers have been taking the pizzas up to the Capitol with plates to give it away, while announcing who purchased the pizza, he said.
Jack Williams, owner of Genna’s, said the crowds were calm, pleasant, and caused no trouble besides the occasional chanting and cheering.
“I wish the reasons for the protests weren’t there,” Williams said. “But I’m glad it’s been busy for business.”
