Businesses receive boost Strike group tempers slow sales month
Even if only just for a few days, the addition of 6,000 people on island was enough to give many businesses on island something big to smile about.
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By Lacee A.C. Martinez
Pacific Daily News
The Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group arrived Saturday for a port visit, bringing to the island six ships with 6,000 military personnel aboard.
The different shopping centers on island were flooded with heavy foot traffic yesterday, as were the streets of Tumon, with visiting military service members. So far the visit has been a relief for many businesses. Each sailor is estimated to spend about $300 a day while on liberty.
With six ships in, Lone Star Steakhouse in Tamuning was anticipating another full house last night, said manager A.J. Zapatos.
"I think they did help our sales," Zapatos said.
At least a quarter of the restaurant was filled with military personnel.
Because of its national branding, the restaurant receives a lot of military customers, especially when military ships are visiting, Zapatos said.
"That definitely means good news for business overall," he said. "We were able to stay busy throughout the evening until the end of the night."
Pod Gear, just a small kiosk in the Micronesia Mall, had its counters and display cases surrounded by customers yesterday.
"I've been told that April is just a slow month for businesses, and it started out really slow for us," Pod Gear sales associate Ray Santos said. "Sales all of a sudden in the last two days just went up."
A majority of his customers over the weekend were military personnel looking for new accessories for their digital media players, he said.
The employees at Haven Music, also at the Micronesia Mall, were busy yesterday assisting a full store of customers.
Sales associate Peter Untalan said the past two weeks will help drive up what otherwise has been a very slow month in sales.
"I wasn't here on Saturday to get the brunt of it but it was pretty busy," Untalan said.
Untalan said he was happy to be busy yesterday on account of the military traffic.
"It's been really good for us here," he said. "It helps keep our doors open, helps to pay our bills and our employees."
Visiting sailor Gabriel Velazquez, originally from California, said he was more than willing to spend a few dollars on his short visit to Guam. Haven Music was the first store he hit after stepping off a chartered bus. He also spent part of the day buying T-shirts for fellow shipmates who were on duty and couldn't leave the ship.
"I like Guam a lot," Velazquez said. "It's different."
At the Guam Premier Outlets in Tamuning, sailor and Hawaii resident Clinton Washington was on a mission to spend while on Guam.
"I'm just here to just kick back and relax but I'm going to buy myself some slacks and my wife a Mother's Day gift first," he said.