Convention meant feast or famine for businesses - WFXG FOX54 Augusta - Your News One Hour Earlier

Convention meant feast or famine for businesses

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - For many businesses uptown, the convention brought one of two things - feast or famine.

"All this extra cheese right here. You know, we thought we were going to use all of this and maybe still run out," James Haney said, pointing at a fridge full of mozzarella.  At the restaurant where he works, Pie in the Sky, tucked away in the historic Latta Arcade on South Tryon, they did very little in sales at all.

"We just didn't do good," Haney said. "We were expecting to have lines through the door. Most restaurants raised their prices you know for the DNC. We kept ours exactly the same. You know, not what we were expecting."

Over at Harvest Moon Grille, however, Sheldon Schrieber says they had a very different experience.

"We were busy for dinner last night, slammed for breakfast," he said. Harvest Moon is also on South Tryon, but it sits where all the action was. "It was like a real big party and everyone is invited," he said.

The clubs and bars at EpiCenter were absolutely packed. A source says one pulled in about $100,000. And back at Pie and the Sky's end of town, this CVS did well too, packing in hundreds of extra customers.

Haney is disappointed, but he doesn't blame himself.  "I even put a pizza suit on, and stood out in front. I looked like a slice of pizza. It didn't work."

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