The G.O.P. Convention Is No Landslide Win for Milwaukee Businesses

Many business owners said they were disappointed by a drop in customers during the Republican National Convention. Other places were packed.

When Milwaukee was chosen to host the Republican National Convention, city leaders sold the event to local businesses as a singular economic boost.

That has proved true for some. As delegates descended on the city this week, charter buses have been full, hotels have been packed and some bars bustling. But good fortune has not spread evenly, and disappointed workers at some stores and restaurants said they had seen minimal foot traffic.

“Most of my customers are the people who work around here, so I think they are working remotely,” said Cheraty Par, the owner of an Awi Sushi location near the heavily fortified convention site. She increased staffing for the convention’s opening day and handed out menus on the sidewalk, but reported just a tenth of her usual lunch business.

For others, the convention brought a welcome influx of spending. At The New Fashioned, a restaurant steps from Fiserv Forum, home to the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team and the convention’s main stage, there were so many customers on Monday that the marketing director was tending bar.

“We were telling our team to be prepared for about the equivalent of one big Bucks game a day,” Marla Poytinger, the owner and chief executive of the restaurant’s parent company said on Tuesday. “Yesterday was the equivalent of about five Bucks games in one day. We were absolutely slammed.”