Fleet Week is one of the largest civic events in Northern California. Loved by locals and tourists alike, around one million people swarm San Francisco each year to view the spectacular air show featuring the Blue Angels.
In 2013, to the dismay of many, the Blue Angels performance was canceled due to the federal budget impasse. Fleet Week still took place, but without the flagship performance by the Navy’s most famous fliers.
And local businesses suffered. Fleet Week is one of their busiest weeks of the year, but without the draw of the Blue Angels, businesses saw their sales seriously decline. In fact, tens of thousands of local businesses, many of which are Square merchants, said the cancellation had a negative effect on their sales.
This past weekend, the Blue Angels returned to San Francisco for the first time since 2012. It makes sense that this was good for local business — but how good? Turns out the effect was pretty huge.
This past weekend, Square sellers in San Francisco saw nearly a 75 percent increase in overall sales compared to Fleet Week last year. Taking a look at Sunday alone (the most popular day to watch the Blue Angels perform), Square sellers saw nearly a 250 percent increase in sales. That’s millions of dollars worth of sales directly linked to the Blue Angels.
So now there’s one more reason to love Fleet Week’s air show — it brings millions of additional dollars into San Francisco businesses.
Photo credit: “Blue Angels Air Show” by Aaron & Carol, Flickr, CC by 2.0, cropped from original
