How coastal businesses fared during the Super Bowl

Super Bowl 59 may officially be in the books but it has left its mark on coastal businesses, with some stores and restaurants seeing a big boost in business leading up to kickoff.

One of those stores being Gulf Coast Cards and Sports which spoke to WXXV a  few weeks ago on how they were getting ready for a big increase in business for the Super Bowl. And just how did they do during Super Bowl weekend? Well it was no regular weekend inside the Edgewater mall for this store.

“It was extremely busy. Both Saturday and Sunday when we opened we had people waiting to come in the store, so you know it’s going to be a good day when you have people waiting to come. Overall we sold jerseys, hats, t-shirts, signed stuff, anything you can think of we were selling for the Super Bowl,” says manager Shan Mahmood.

Customers from near and far flooding the store trying to grab some gear before the big game, leading to a surge in sales and not much left to choose from after it was all said and done.

“It was in the high hundreds. Between the knick knacks, t-shirts, chains, and everything we have it was multiple hundreds of items we were able to sell Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We’re down to just a handful of jerseys and t-shirts and a couple of hats left. Overall the Eagles were our number one seller and we sold out of a lot of stuff.”

But Gulf Coast Cards and Sports was not the only one that reaped the benefits of the Super Bowl. Restaurants and bars on the coast saw their tables filled, especially at Kelly’s Sports Pub in downtown Gulfport, where all day you might’ve been lucky if you found a seat.

“It was from open to close. Specifically when the game was you couldn’t get a seat. Tables were full, bar was full, we had people out here in the pool room. It was packed, our sales were probably three times that of a regular football Sunday,” says bartender Raegan Husley.