Tide’s National Football Playoff Championship Victory Means a Win-Win for Area Retailers
Bama fans are hitting the stores in droves to buy championship merchandise and that means big bucks for those who carry it
Alabama fan Regina Gibbs-Lewis has a long shopping list when it comes to National Championship swag.
“I got t-shirts going out to Virginia, I got t-shirts going to Birmingham, I got t-shirts going to Anderson, Indiana,” said Gibbs-Lewis.
And she’s not alone.
“Today I’m buying three shirts for me and my two sons and I’m buying another little handbag cause I’m really a diehard fan,” said fellow Montgomery shopper Kisha West.
Turns out, football fans are driving an economic boom at stores around town. And that has retailers reaping big benefits from Bama’s win.
“Once that game ends, they get that score, they start printing off those shirts all night long and they just start sending them on out,” said Gina Aaron, the store manager at Montgomery’s Bama Fever Tiger Pride
Aaron opened her store before daybreak Tuesday morning to welcome the crowd. She says championship wins bring lucrative business.
“Dollar wise, it’s definitely more than our Black Friday,” said Aaron. “I mean our Black Friday sales are tremendous and this is like a Black Friday to us almost every single day for a while.”
And with a strong fanbase, retailers don’t see the sales slowing down anytime soon, as they keep restocking their racks all week.
Other local retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Academy Sports + Outdoors who opened their doors to fans after the game have reported near sell-outs of College Football Championship merchandise. Store managers say they’ll be receiving more championship product shipments all week.
