Foothills restaurants seeing surge in sales from snowbirds coming back

CATALINA FOOTHILLS, Ariz. (KGUN) — When he steps into his bar and restaurant Risky Business, Tom Kruszewski has been noticing a big increase in the amount of people coming in, especially after the weather cooled down. He’s seeing some familiar faces, but a lot of new ones too.

“I’d say about 40 percent of the people that came in today were from out of town,” Kruszewski said.

While their busiest season is usually the spring, he said last year in November and December, the restaurant also had strong sales.

“Last year was probably one of the busier… I guess snow bird months than we’ve had in quite some time,” he said.

In the summer he was seeing less people come in, telling us a few months ago that the heat didn’t motivate a lot of people to come to his business.

However, now that it’s much different, he said he needs to hire more workers and extend hours for the workers he does have.

“We have to add more bodies to each shift throughout the week. The evenings are getting a little bit busier, so we’re adding more bodies there, kitchen as well,” he said.

Snowbirds are also coming back to El Charro Cafe and helping out their profits.

Their owner Ray Flores, the president of Sí Charro! Restaurants and Flores Concepts, said they usually see this trend after the summer, from the end of September to the end of May.

“We definitely see a spike in business, whether it be snow birds or people from other markets that just want to come and enjoy the beautiful weather that Tucson has,” Flores said.

During what he calls “the season”, he usually sees his sales grow anywhere from 30 to 50 percent. He said they also see a surge of customers come in during certain parts of the day like lunch.

“There may be more daytime availability for folks that are either retired or on leisure travel or recreational travel, so they may eat out lunch more often,” he said.

He’s also seeing that trend at his other restaurants, like the one in downtown.

However, he said their surge in sales also has to do with students going back to the U of A, students going back to school, and people not vacationing as much. He said having the money and people back in Tucson is important to local restaurants.

He said when people spend at local places, it helps the Tucson economy grow.

“I truly believe that people feel the difference being in this market than when they go somewhere else,” Flores said.