MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jay Nelson was standing outside the convenience store he manages in downtown Milwaukee when one of his regular customers walked by for a casual stroll around the neighborhood.
“I’ve been telling people to come and buy a bottle of wine,” he said, holding out his hand. “Hopefully this helps.”
Hugging her, Nelson said they needed all the help they could get.
The store he has managed for nearly a decade, Downtown Market & Smoke Shop, was one of many businesses closed off by tall metal fences for the 2024 Republican National Convention, a far-reaching impact that closed parts of downtown for more than a week.
For small businesses like Downtown Market, the RNC did not deliver a decisive victory, instead hampering sales despite earlier promises that it would bring an economic boost.
“I want you to bring all your money to Milwaukee, spend it that week, and leave it in Milwaukee,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said two years ago at the RNC’s summer meeting when it was announced that the city would host the GOP national convention.
But Samir Saddique, owner of the Downtown Market and nearby Avenue Liquor, said the convention “didn’t do anything.” Traffic and sales dropped off dramatically soon after the fences went up in front of the stores. By Thursday, the final day of the RNC, the liquor store was doing only 10% of its usual sales, he said.
“We were isolated from the outside world,” Saddique said.
Claire Koenig, a spokeswoman for Visit Milwaukee, which promotes the city as a tourist destination, said the economic impact report will likely take three months to compile.
Across the Milwaukee River, which marks the eastern edge of the RNC security zone, only one seat was occupied at the bar inside Elwood’s Liquor & Tap during their Wednesday happy hour, which is usually a busy night for the red-booth bar near Fiserv Forum where the convention’s main stage is located.
“Everyone was promised that this would be a big source of income for businesses,” said bar manager Sam Chung, 30. “So it’s weird to see how this is really killing business for a lot of people out there.”
Even their most loyal customers didn’t stop by this week, Chung said.
“They don’t even want to come here because it’s obviously a mess to get here,” he said, adding that he thinks “a big part of the reason is because a lot of our regulars are Democrats.”
Milwaukee is the most blue-leaning city in Wisconsin, a crucial swing state.
Adam Buker, a 21-year-old barista at a coffee shop near one of the convention exits, which directs attendees to the wide street, said that all week he had been playing music by queer artists as his own form of protest.
But the doors are always open at Canary Coffee Bar.
“It 100% has to do with our location,” Buker said Thursday as he packed espresso grounds to make a cortado, with Frank Ocean’s tune playing in the background.
Despite being outside the safety zone, the cafe’s glass storefront and butter-yellow sidewalk seating are not blocked by fences like Saddique’s liquor store and convenience store. RNC attendees also don’t have to cross a river to get to the coffee shop, unlike Elwood.
After closing out the week, Buker said he spent his tip money at some of the struggling bars around the convention site.
“From one service worker to another,” he said. “Spread the love.”
As Buker’s final shift during RNC week ended Thursday night, an impromptu party was just getting underway outside Saddique’s convenience store. Saddique and Nelson, the manager, were hoping the tacos and iced green tea pouring from an orange cooler would draw customers to the store that has been open for more than 20 years, surviving a recession and a global pandemic.
Debra Lampe-Revolinski, who has lived in the building next door to Saddique’s business for 15 years, said she came up with the idea for the party earlier in the week, when she realized the expected increase in business wasn’t going to materialize for her friends.
He knew Saddique and Nelson were working hard to prepare for the RNC, having seen them toiling for weeks while renovating parts of the store, he said.
“Then there was deflation because the shops were closed off by high metal fences,” he said. “It was very unattractive.”
As Trump took center stage Thursday to formally accept the GOP nomination, Lampe-Revolinski said the party that was originally intended to bring in business instead turned into a celebration of surviving a week.
“If anything, this week has strengthened our little community on this block to support local businesses,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed from Madison, Wisconsin.
