Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As "Bills Mafia" celebrated Victory Monday after Sunday night's season-opening win over the Baltimore Ravens, stores that carry team gear found themselves quite busy, but how busy is it compared to other parts of the year?
"It gets pretty busy, and it's coming off of an insane weekend," said Mary Friona-Celani of the Totally Buffalo Store.
She says she couldn't ask for anything more.
"As a small business owner, same I mean, it would just be unbelievable, this community, the city, this town, these fans deserve it so much, so much, and this team has so much heart. You can tell how badly they want it," said Friona-Celani with WBEN.
According to Friona-Celani, Bills gear accounts for about 75%-to-80% of sales, and so much of that is just from the website, many from folks out-of-town who miss living here.
"We definitely see that a lot, and we had a lot of folks in the stores from all around the country over the weekend, even a couple from Germany, actually were at the game," Friona-Celani added.
However, Victory Monday is not the busiest day of business for Friona-Celani.
"If you think about Christmas, we're at the Erie County Fair. There's a lot of big days, but it definitely does drive quite a bit of traffic," Friona-Celani said. "The best part about it, though, is everybody's in such a good mood when they come in, everybody's fired up and just happy. That always makes people want to shop a little more."
She adds night games are good for her because shoppers have extra time before kickoff.
Victory Monday is just another busy day, says Nathan Mroz of the BFLO Store.
"Sometimes the day after a Victory Monday can be busier than the weekend before, and a lot of that has to do with out-of-towners that are in for the game," said Mroz in an interview with WBEN.
He also notes some are coming to the store before they fly out of Buffalo.
Mroz says the store gets slower during the springtime, but once summer hits, there's a lot of excitement surrounding the Bills.
"It's a very funny thing, when you're in retail and you kind of rely on victories a little bit to kind of determine how much you're going to make," Mroz said. "People say they gamble on sports, but it makes me laugh because, really, one of the biggest gambles you can do is be in retail. You're always wondering how much product to bring in, how much to order. But the best thing about 'Bills Mafia' is it doesn't matter how many times we win, there's always a contingent of people that support them."
However, if there's a win, he sees, at least, a 30%-to-40% uptick in business.
Mroz says there's a great vibe that comes the weekend of the home opener.
"Everyone wants the lawn sign for their house. Everyone wants to show Bills pride. So that first weekend is always one of our top-five, the top-10 busiest weekends of the entire year," he said. "What's so exciting about that is it's also when we are freshly stocked. We have all the latest, newest trends, whether it's fashion trends, whether it's just the latest, cool Buffalo Bills [merchandise], we've got full stock. So it's people going back to school, you've got Bills Friday, you've got the kids getting stuff. It's this huge mirage of people coming in, sweltering in to our stores. It's just exciting."
