Thanksgiving week on Nantucket was transformed this year by the arrival of President Biden and his family, who came with an entourage of more than a hundred Secret Service agents and security personnel and were followed by dozens of media members and television news crews, along with State Police Troopers and others. But did all the activity bring an offseason jolt to the island economy? Nantucket Current checked in with a dozen island business owners and other community leaders to ask that question in the aftermath of the Bidens’ visit.
“Nantucket benefits immensely when local and national media celebrates our island as a favored destination and spotlights our small businesses – as was the case during the President’s visit,” said Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce Chair Alicia Carney, who is also the executive director of the Nantucket Dreamland. “Shopping locally and supporting small business is vital to our economic health and it was refreshing to see the president lead by example during his visit.”
Biden indeed visited numerous downtown shops and businesses during his stay, including Bookworks, Murray’s Toggery Shop, the Sunken Ship, Centre Point, ACK 4170, and dined at the Tap Room in the basement of the Jared Coffin House. On “Small Business Saturday” Biden’s Instagram account posted photos of him at Bookworks, ACK 4170, and inside the Sunken Ship, sharing the images with his 17.8 million followers.
“Town was flooded with people trying to get a glimpse of the President,” said Susan Fairgrieve, the owner of the ACK 4170 gift shop on Federal Street who posted photos and videos of Biden approaching the entrance to her store. “Normally Thanksgiving weekend is good for us with an increase in sales, but this past weekend far surpassed previous years.”
One sector of the island that almost certainly got a boost from the Bidens’ visit was the lodging industry. Some of Nantucket’s inns and hotels were completely booked by the Secret Service and other visiting government personnel or media. The White Elephant was ground zero for the Secret Service, while the press corps stayed at the Veranda House. And those weren’t the only lodging establishments that saw bumps during what is normally a relatively quiet week, as the Secret Service entourage was so large that it took up residence in a number of other hotels.
“For the past 15 years we are fortunate to have had great occupancies and food and beverage business during Thanksgiving, this year once the President’s trip was confirmed we had a little welcome bump,” said Khaled Hashem, the managing director of hospitality for New England Development, which owns and operates White Elephant Resorts.
Some restaurants and bars also noted an uptick in business during the week of Thanksgiving, while others said it was about average.
“Thanksgiving is always a good week,” said Debba Pitcock, general manager and managing partner of the Rose and Crown on South Water Street. “It was definitely stronger with the influx of support staff and secret service members here for the POTUS visit. We saw a pickup in business earlier than usual.”
Even out of the downtown area at The Chicken Box, the trickle down effect was noticed.
“It didn’t hurt, I’ll put it to you that way,” said co-owner Rocky Fox. “It was a little. But sometimes a little is a lot.”
But for others in the downtown area, any economic impact from the Biden visit was negligible.
“I don’t think there was a noticeable difference either way, good or bad,” said Jack Pearson, co-owner of Jewel In The Sea. “I believe road closures impacted some businesses, but we were outside of that closure zone. It was pretty quiet on Friday. If we were on Main Street I would suspect we would have felt it a lot more.”
On India Street, restaurateur Orla Murphy-Lascola also said business at The Proprietors Bar & Table was steady compared to previous years.
“We saw no difference – it was as busy in the restaurant as it always is historically pre-COVID,” Murphy-Lascola said. “The downtown was buzzing though – we thought there was a really festive excitement from the activity brought by the movement of the Bidens through the downtown. The Secret Service were super respectful as much as they could be while protecting the president. There were some misfires in planning; it felt like information was slow to filter down to the businesses that were being directly impacted but everyone was working as hard as they could to keep us in the loop and we were able to reach out and get answers when we needed.”
One downtown island business owner who wished to remain anonymous said their volume was actually down, and mentioned there were some negative issues related to the security measures implemented on Main Street during the Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Friday.
“I would say our sales from a typical Black Friday were down 30 percent or so, but a few factors played into that,” the business owner said. “I think some people were confused about the mask mandates and the security presence downtown, but the weather also wasn’t very good. I think businesses like those on Main Street were much more impacted than us. I think that if this happened during Stroll weekend, you would have heard a lot more people voicing their frustration and complaining. But we are just happy to be open and able to be back to some normalcy.”
While the Steamship Authority told the Current it was still too early to gather any numbers from Thanksgiving week, both Nantucket Memorial Airport and Hy-Line Cruises stated volumes were flat or even down compared to 2019.
“No bump in travel to the island over the holiday weekend,” said Hy-Line Cruises President Murray Scudder. “Travel remains brisk this fall but nothing out of the ordinary.”
Noah Karberg, the assistant manager at Nantucket Memorial Airport, said fuel sales were actually down for the weekend, but he was looking forward to getting the rental car numbers which he expects will show a significant increase.
“Fuel sales in gallons were down 20 percent compared to the weekend in 2019,” Karberg said. “We don’t do a lot of comparisons to 2020 since it was so whacky. Non-fuel service items such as landing fees, ramp fees, catering were down three percent. So that really makes sense once you look at the numbers. People still came to Nantucket but with some temporary flight restrictions and the gateway airports, there was some extra stuff required for everyone on arrival. Some people took the opportunity to fuel up at a gateway airport (last airport they arrived to prior to Nantucket). Bottom line is we were within our margin of error of about five percent when you factor in weather, one plane that takes a lot of fuel, stuff like that. The thing we really have to wait and see is car rentals and how our car rental tenants faired because there was a lot of rental activity associated with the president’s visit and secret service. That will take another month for us to get.”
