A fair amount of business

By KRISTI ALBERTSON

Kalispell stores, restaurants reap spinoff from Northwest Montana Fair

The Daily Inter Lake

Busy.

That's the word that best describes the impact the Northwest Montana Fair has on the businesses around the Flathead County Fairgrounds. While the fair staff prepares to welcome and entertain the thousands of people who will arrive this week, nearby businesses are girding themselves to dress, feed and house the crowd.

Fair week often demands long hours and staffing extra employees, but in return, sales skyrocket. For many local businesses, this is the best week of the year.

Western clothing stores naturally thrive come fair time, when people get in the spirit and "cowboy up." Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply's clothing sales increase by 10 or 15 percent. Western Outdoor Store's sales spike 20 to 25 percent during fair week.

Corral West's sales pattern is similar, but is aided by the store's proximity to the fairgrounds on U.S. 2. Business starts to swell the week prior to fair, store manager Amy Bedey said.

"We have the 4-H kids coming in and buying outfits for the fair," she said. "We also have the rodeo queens and princesses in and out of our store the week before."

During the fair, increased sales are primarily the result of all the extra people in town, she said.

All those people need a place to stay, and hotels across the city get fuller during fair week. Motel 6 sees a 5 to 10 percent increase. Red Lion Hotel Kalispell's occupancy hasn't changed much, but 85 percent of the people who'll stay there this week are there because of the fair.

"For us, it's probably the best week of the year," said Lori Fisher, general manager of the Hampton Inn on U.S. 2. "Being located right across the street helps."

The hotel has been busy during the fair for a decade, she said. Every one of its 120 rooms is full, and people always request to be put on a waiting list, a service the Hampton Inn does not offer.

"It's always first come, first serve," she said. "For 10 years, we have always been sold out on that particular week."

Half of their fair-week reservations are made a year in advance.

"We usually get people who, when they're leaving, book for the following year," Fisher said.

The hotel offers a 24-hour cancellation period in case something comes up at the last minute, but for the most part, people plan in advance on returning to Kalispell for the next fair. Most of the week's guests are from Browning, Fisher said, but they get some from Columbia Falls who don't want to waste time driving.

That's why so many people try to stay at the Hampton, she added.

"The nice thing about being across the street from the fair is they don't have to go through the headache of trying to find parking," she said.

Parking is one thing that can hinder business a little, said Mike Hayes, who owns Michael's Exxon West on the corner of Meridian and U.S. 2. Every year he gets people who want to park at the gas station for "just a moment" so they can drop someone off.

It might not be a problem if there weren't a line of cars all doing the same thing, he said.

"If people can't get in and out, I'm out of business," he said.

He admitted, however, that there's little likelihood of going out of business during the week of fair. His gasoline sales decline a bit, but he makes up for it with in-store sales.

"It's a very, very busy time of year for us," Hayes said. "It's a lot of work, but we actually enjoy it. We like the fair. It's fun."

Business begins to pick up the week before fair starts, he said. About five days before the gates open, sales start to increase at Michael's; the store gets busier every day until Friday or Saturday, when sales reach their peak. At that point, business is almost double what it usually is, Hayes said.

But the most popular stop at Michael's is the restroom.

"Our restroom participation sees a maybe 1,000-time increase," he said, laughing. "And if I sold toilet paper during that time, we'd be multimillionaires."

To get through the hectic week, Hayes depends on keeping additional employees at the store. Nearby restaurants also staff differently during fair and are especially conscious of scheduling more people to work on Friday and Saturday, traditionally the fair's busiest days.

"We beef up the schedule, no pun intended, especially toward the weekend," said Ray Lodien, manager of Sizzler.

The restaurant might see as much as a 10 percent increase in business, he said, even though they're already busy throughout the summer.

"It's one of our busiest weeks of the year," he said.

The same is true of Arby's and McDonald's, both of which are located across from the fairgrounds on U.S. 2.

"We get really busy," said Karissa Behrens, Arby's manager. "We expect probably the best sales of the year this week."

How much busier they are "kind of varies," she said, but come Friday and Saturday nights, sales are just about double. The same is true at McDonald's, manager Lydia Baggett said, except they're twice as busy all week long.

"We are busy from the start to the end," she said. "Fair week's always fun for us."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com