Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Many local businesses see customer surge
Motorcyclists heading to the Desert 100 stop at the Odessa Cenex to fuel up Friday, April 5. The gas station sold three times as much fuel as a normal weekend during Stumpjumpers weekend.
ODESSA - The Annual Stumpjumpers Desert 100 race held about seven miles west of town in Irby brings a surge of visitors to the area, and this year was no different. Many local businesses and organizations noticed a surge of customers and business during Desert 100 weekend April 3-7.
The Cenex gas station, operated by Grange Supply Company Odessa, sold three times as much gas as a standard weekend.
That's according to Grange Supply general manager Greg Luiten, who said this year's cold, windy and rainy conditions also ballooned the sale of propane.
"We sold about 10 times as much propane as usual," Luiten said.
Not only do the bikers bring more business to town, they're also enjoyable to do business with, Luiten said.
"They're very nice people," Luiten said. "They were coming in as early as Wednesday (April 3)."
That's a sentiment that was also shared by NAPA Auto Parts owner Bryce Bailey, whose business set up an onsite trailer at Desert 100 for the first time.
"The people down there were some of the most genuine people we've dealt with," Bailey said. "We won't miss it again."
Bailey said his business brought in nine times the sales it normally does over the weekend. Paper towels, oil, spark plugs and RV batteries were frequent purchases, he said.
Odessa Drug also sees a customer increase during Stumpjumpers weekend. Owner Ted Bruya said he sells 10 times the amount of liquor he normally does.
"We also sell lots of prescriptions, like Tums, Ibuprofen, stuff like that," Bruya said. "We're probably impacted the most of anybody aside from the grocery store and gas station."
Odessa Foods indeed typically sees quite a customer surge during the weekend, but store management didn't return calls for comment by press time.
Odessa Golf & RV had a lot of food and RV campers over the weekend. That helped offset a slower weekend on the golf course caused by poor weather conditions.
"In a normal (weather) weekend we would've been a lot busier," owner Hannah Jahns said. "If weather had been better, we definitely would've seen more regulars on top of the people from the race."
The Chamber of Commerce operates the onsite beer tent at Desert 100. Chamber president Matt Roberson said the Chamber makes $25,000 to $30,000 in beer sales each year, with Friday and Saturday night the busiest drinking nights.
Roberson also owns Odessa Hardware, and he said his store sees a 15-to-20% increase in sales during Desert 100 weekend.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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