The Downtown entertainment district may have been a mob scene this weekend, but that didn’t seem to translate to South Congress, normally a go-to destination for out-of-towners. In fact, SoCo was deader at 3 p.m. Saturday than I’ve ever seen it. Shops were empty, sidewalks were wide open and even the normally-packed Guero's waiting area was only a third full.
If F1 brought more than 120,000 people from all over the world into Austin this weekend, why weren’t any of them shopping the primarily locally owned boutiques on South Congress? It seems that rather than spreading the wealth across the city, F1 crowds might be simply making the rich richer by frequenting upscale restaurants and tourist traps downtown.
I visited several shops on South Congress Saturday, where I was told similar stories – the stores over-staffed for the weekend, thinking business would be booming but instead were confronted with below-average foot traffic.
Allen’s Boots, usually crowded on a normal Saturday and jam packed when there’s an event in town, experienced exactly this, said a store representative, Sean Greenberg. SXSW is the busiest time of the year for the purveyor of cowboy boots, with the University of Texas Parents’ Weekend and ACL Fest as a “distant third,” he said.
“Thanks to the hype surrounding F1 crowds, we’ve geared up for something similar to the music weekend of SXSW,” Greenberg said last Thursday. “Obviously, we just have no way of knowing since this is its first year.”
When I checked in with him again Sunday though, Greenberg said that unless Monday picked up, the “weekend will be like ACL – lots of people but not a lot of business.”
So what gives? For one, the track isn’t exactly central to the heart of the city. Sure, it’s within 15 miles, but that 15 miles could take one of the unlucky souls not in a chopper up to an hour each way, which doesn’t make it easy for fans to leave for a “quick break.” It seems race-goers head to the track in the morning and stay the entire day. By the time they’ve returned to their hotels, freshened up and eaten dinner, it’s party time, not shopping time.
With most boutiques closing between 6 and 7 p.m., they’re obviously going to miss out on most foot traffic, which seemed to be centered around downtown anyway. However, even earlier last week, when crowds were arriving but races hadn’t yet started, shop workers reported no increase in business.
Part of that might be thanks to the Austin description on the Formula 1 webpage. Although the page touts the “weirdness” of our city, suggested activities include going to the Children’s Museum, the Governor’s Mansion and a handful of other downtown-centered activities that few Austinites would describe as “weird.”
As expected, Downtown seemed to do well this weekend. Although reports came in of hotel rooms still being available, many were crowded, and the bars and restaurants were packed. At least some of those dollars were going to owners who live in Austin, even if a high majority was going to out-of-state hotel groups that hardly need more money.
However, I heard several reports of restaurant owners bringing in multi-lingual wait staff to ensure that restaurant guests felt at home. That’s great for the guests, but what about the regular wait staff whose bread and butter depends on these sorts of high-draw, high-dollar events?
This highly anticipated weekend seems to have been a bust for at least some local shops, who weren’t even seeing the normal Austin-based traffic as locals were scared off by the forecast of huge crowds. This is only the first F1 event, but unless we do something to make these events meaningful for more of the city, more of the city is going to lose out.
Update: Allen's Boots reported Monday that overall, weekend business was up about 30 percent, comparable to the weekend of SXSW Interactive. It wasn't clear whether that was attributed to greater sales per customer, greater foot traffic overall or both.
