Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The anticipation for Sunday's AFC Championship Game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs continues, as fans in both cities prepare for the possibility of a win and earning their right to head to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
While we're still a few days away from Sunday's big contest in Kansas City, many Western New York businesses are readying for the potential of a trip to the Super Bowl this February.
This includes one business in North Tonawanda that is planning for a workplace adjustment for the Monday after the Super Bowl, if the Bills make it to the Big Game in New Orleans on Feb. 9.
"What we're going to do is a day that follows the Super Bowl, we're going to delay the start of the work day by two hours. That takes the start of our first shift from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.," said Bob Confer, president of Confer Plastics. "That gives them a chance to sleep off the partying that was the night before, or it gives them a chance to continue their adulation, or maybe drown their sorrows, depending on the outcome of the game."
Because Confer is doing that and decreasing the work day by two hours, the company is going to give the worker two extra hours of pay to cover up that lost time.
"And then for our other shifts, who don't have that same schedule as the first shift does, they're going to be getting two extra hours of pay on top of their typical eight-hour shift. That way there's some equity across the shifts," Confer explained with WBEN.
Confer says this coming Monday after the AFC Championship Game will be business as usual, but he does expect some of the workforce to take the day off, as he also does the day after the Super Bowl.
"We're planning on that, and I've actually made a schedule that focuses just on the priority machines, so we can keep them running with anticipation that we'll have a good number of call-ins for a good reason," Confer said.
Confer believes most employers will have some sort of flexibility for the day after the Super Bowl, if the Bills do make it there. He also wouldn't be surprised to see some school districts even delaying the start of their day that Monday as well.
"I'm hoping that employers understand this could be a once in a lifetime event, kind of like last year's solar eclipse was, and they'll adjust their schedules accordingly, just as they did last year," Confer said.
As for this coming week, businesses like Franco's Pizza is expecting one of the busiest days they've ever had.
"Certainly whenever they're playing away, that has a huge impact on our business," said Walt Smietana, owner of Franco's Pizza. "Home games, we still do really well during those but obviously there's almost 80,000 people that are headed toward the game, so not as many people are at home in Buffalo watching the game. When they're away, we always do better, but obviously when the stakes are this high, it's going to be as busy as it's ever been."
With the Bills' success in the Josh Allen era, almost every week has been busy at Franco's. This week, in particular, the pizzeria will be fully staffed with the anticipation of orders ahead of the game.
"People really get excited about getting together, and pizza and wings is part of that tradition, or that superstition, whatever you want to say. It's just something that goes well with Bills football. And as they do better and better every year, we get busier and busier every year," Smietana said with WBEN.
"We look at the schedules in detail, making sure of the plan correctly, drivers are available. We're actually on DoorDash UberEATS, and we have our own online platform. We have all those dialed in and running to full capacity."
Another part of the planning ahead of Sunday's big game is a limiting of items available on the menu.
"We take away a few of the things that kind of slow us down to make sure we're in total service mode so we can satisfy as many of our customers as we can," Smietana explained. "We take a lot of pre-orders, so we're prepared for that, and we do things a little bit differently, as far as [how] we set up.
"We want to make sure that the pizza you get on Sunday night at 6 o'clock is the same as you get on Tuesday at 2 o'clock. Same high quality, same fantastic experience, and I think we do that as well as anybody. It's our planning that really sets us apart with that."
And while thoughts of a potential Super Bowl appearance are not at the forefront of Smietana's mind right now, he'd be lying if he said there haven't been, at least, discussions about it.
"We're in the business side where we, obviously, sell food around the Bills' success, but we still want the Bills to be successful at the end of the day," Smietana said. "We talk about the menu, the setup, what we think we could expect, and how we would make sure the team that's there is enjoying the game as well. Whether we do some stuff in the store to make sure that the games are playing. We also talk about the amount of pre-order that we would expect."
Regardless of whether the Bills make it to the Super Bowl or not, Smietana says Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for chicken wing orders.
"There's a lot of days, like Valentine's Day, Halloween, where we'll sell probably just as many pizzas as any given Super Bowl, but wings are a 50% increase. Wings are completely a different thing on those days. So the overall business is a lot bigger because of that," he said.
Another local business ready for the anticipated rush ahead of Sunday's game is Market in the Square and its two locations in West Seneca and North Tonawanda.
"Our bakery department, especially at our West Seneca store, is second-to-none. We have everything from red, white and blue rye bread, if you will, to red, white and blue bagels. We have cakes decorated with the Buffalo Bills colors, we have pastry hearts drizzled with red, white and blue frosting," said Brian Kusmierski, owner of Market in the Square. "In our deli departments, we're ready. We're getting together all our kinds of pepperoni and cheese-snacking trays. We have rye bread dip bowls. And let's not forget, we've got pizza and wing specials in the stores. We're gearing up for Sunday to be huge, as far as the traffic is concerned."
Because the game Sunday is a 6:30 p.m. kickoff, it will give customers the entire day leading up to game time to shop for all their essentials.
Kusmierski certainly understands just how impactful this game Sunday is for Western New York, especially with a trip back to the Super Bowl on the line.
"Last weekend, going into the Ravens game, business was fabulous. People were picking up hoodies and everything from the deli, everything from the bakery that they wanted, meat department-type items. As far as what it means to us going forward, the game with Kansas City is going to be huge," Kusmierski said with WBEN. "We're supporting the Bills, and as far as our customers are concerned, they know we support the Bills and we'll be ready for a Bills win, and for all the customers coming to our store to support them."
Kusmierski anticipates having all hands on deck leading up to Sunday's game, especially given the fact it's a game taking place on the road.
"It's an away game, people will have home parties and that type of deal, versus just the tailgate parties at the stadium, if it was a home game," he said.
Kusmierski adds his stores will be ready to roll if, and when, the Bills come away victorious on Sunday over the Chiefs.
"We have our hoodies ordered in hopes of the championship for the AFC, so we'll put the order in for the hoodies. We'll just wait to see the outcome of the game before they get to go to print them and have them in store by Monday or Tuesday, same thing for Super Bowl. We have our hoodies already ordered, waiting to be printed at the printer so if they win the Super Bowl - God willing, I hope they do - we'll have the AFC champions shirts available mid-week next week, and we'll have the Super Bowl ones after they win the Super Bowl either the Monday or the Tuesday after," Kusmierski noted.