Emmett’s Bar and Grill in Appleton is seeing some lean times. “Quiet. It’s been very quiet,” owner Sharon Reader says.

Some business owners say revenue is down 35 to 65 percent compared to a year ago. One bar owner tells us looking at the last two weeks she’s down $7,000 from the same period last year.

Reader says the difference at her business is 40 percent. She says one Appleton city council member suggested the recent hot weather might be the reason business is down.
“Because I keep track of the weather for the last nine years, I can say, I’m sorry, but three years ago it was 98 degrees and muggy, and I’m doing twice in sales what I’m doing this year,” Reader responds.

Since July 1st, lunch time at Emmett’s has been slow. So slow that the owner is thinking of cutting lunch entirely. That means that the day staff wouldn’t have a job.

“I just informed my employees yesterday that they will probably be laid off in two weeks,” Reader said Thursday, “and this’ll be the first time that Emmett’s has closed for lunch in 15 years.”

The problem isn’t just lunch, it’s the fact that business is down across the board.
“My nighttime business has supported my daytime business enough for me to keep these people employed and keep my head on the pillow at night. That’s no longer the case,” Reader said.

“The people in Grand Chute and Harrison and Kimberly, they’re happier than a hog in mud because they’re getting all our customers. That affects our tax base,” Richard Thompson, who represents Appleton’s eighth district, said.

Source: wbay.com. Link

This entry was posted on Friday, July 29th, 2005 at 9:22 am and is filed under Bars/Taverns, Job Loss, North America, Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.