Business owners reflect on Super Bowl economic impact

(KSMP) - Now that the massive crowds have disappeared from Nicollet Mall and other downtown areas, how did local businesses fare with all the extra foot traffic? 

If you're in the restaurant industry, then you were killing it on Nicollet Mall. But for some retail stores up in the skyway and at the Mall of America, many say the numbers were not so good. 

With tens of thousands of people from all over the world checking out the Super Bowl Live Experience on Nicollet Mall, the Convention Center and at the Mall of America, people had money to spend.

“I’d say A+. We had so much traffic, a lot of energy, a lot of support,” said Jack Hendricks, who works at the coca and fig store on Nicollet Mall.

They had non-stop orders from NFL players and requests to cater high profile events.

“We expected about 50,000 people to come by and we definitely ran out of product every single day—we had a lot of people, a lot of happy faces.”

The Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee estimated more than $400 million to be pumped into the local economy by hosting Super Bowl 52.

“We are so glad that it was spent on our local businesses and that so many workers were able to partake with both the build-up and the take-down of the Super Bowl festivities.”

But not all local businesses are giving the economic impact an A+.

Some retailers say they hardly had any customers come into their stores, and now they have all this merchandise to sell.

Emily Mares works at Indulge & Bloom at Gaviidae Common, and she says a lot of people browsed in the store but weren't interested in lugging gifts around outside.

“I would give it a solid B. It wasn’t overwhelming, and we didn’t meet our high standards, but we met some amazing people, we had a great time,” she said.