Business
Business Slower Than Usual for Some Milwaukee Establishments Outside RNC, But Still Beats 2020’s Virtual DNC
Video: After the COVID-19 pandemic altered plans for the DNC in 2020, Milwaukee businesses near the RNC are hoping to see an increase in customers. (Nicole Cardos / WTTW News)
Ken McNulty says there’s more to cheese than people might think.
“There is such a huge variety, it’s not just sandwich cheese … there are truffle cheeses, aged cheddar cheeses for beer, or wine, or whiskey,” McNulty said.
That’s one of the misconceptions he hopes to clear up for the thousands of people attending the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
McNulty is the president of Wisconsin Cheese Mart, 215 W. Highland Ave., a specialty cheese store located right across from the convention’s east entrance.
The store is one of a handful of businesses in the Old World Third Street Entertainment District open to the public during the convention.
As of Tuesday, McNulty says business has been slow — but that’s to be expected with a perishable product.
“They don’t buy a lot of cheese because they can’t really keep it with them … so they have to put it in a cooler with ice,” he said.
But McNulty says foot traffic and the number of sales are still a stark difference from the 2020 Democratic National Convention, which Milwaukee nominally hosted in August of that year.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced DNC organizers to make the convention a virtual affair.
As a result, McNulty says months of planning went to waste.
“It was a non-event, so at least people are here in Milwaukee, which is awesome,” McNulty says.
Just hundreds of feet away, the feeling is mutual for Ryan Cooke, who oversees operations for Milwaukee Brat House.
He says the change of plans in 2020 helped the eatery prepare for this year’s convention.
“We went through all those meetings and started to really get into the prep, and then the pandemic hit,” Cooke said. “So we were a little warmed up for this one.”
But even with the extra practice and planning, there’s no anticipating the “logistical headaches.”
“Food deliveries are tough,” Cooke said. “Obviously we try and not have to do food deliveries around the event, but you can only have so much freezer space.”
Some of those deliveries have to route around the RNC’s secured perimeter, which has several streets closed off to cars and people.
The convention’s pedestrian entrances and exits are what longtime Brick 3 Pizza employee Shane Abrahamson believes has led to fewer patrons this week so far.
Abrahamson says the New York-style pizza eatery, located at 1107 N. Old World 3rd St., hasn’t been attracting customers throughout the day.
“It seems like all the people enter on one end of the street and then exit all the way in a separate direction, so we’re not seeing a bunch of people in between,” Abrahamson said.
That might change when the RNC comes to an end. That’s also when McNulty expects business to peak.
“Once [convention-goers] leave, they’re instructed by their family members not to leave Wisconsin without cheese, so then they buy a lot of cheese before they go back home,” he said.
