EMILY K. PATTERSON / Scroll Broulim’s Supermarket student employee Jed Bangerter, a senior from Alpine, Utah, stocks grocery items in preparation for Mothers’ Weekend. During the week, Broulim’s sees an overall 13 percent increase in sales.

Local businesses prepare for Mothers’ Weekend

by Ben Martin MAR00002@BYUI.EDU City Editor

Hotels fill up as early as June, restaurants triple their customers, and retail stores run specials for mothers wanting to buy their children gifts during their visit.

Anne Hansen, a sophomore from Snowflake, Ariz., said that she and her mother often visit several local businesses when she is in town for Mothers’ Weekend.

“She doesn’t buy me all my groceries, but she likes to help me a little,” she said. “She buoys me up for the rest of the semester.”

Hansen said that she and her mother often go to dinner or to movies while her mother is up.

Alicia Riley, front desk clerk at Days Inn in Rexburg, said that these times don’t come that often for the hotel.

“It’s one of the five times a year we fill up,” she said.

This swelling of guests warrants extra care on the part of the staff.

“We get all of our rooms in good shape and make sure we have plenty of staff here,” Riley said.

Jane Camp, co-owner of JB’s restaurant, said that their business greatly increases during the annual event.

“It doubles or triples from the previous week’s sales,” she said.

The restaurant also does special things for mothers during the weekend like handing out flowers to the mothers that come to eat. They also increase advertising prior to Mothers’ Weekend by putting fliers in places like the dorms and motels around town.

Other businesses around town offer special deals as people from all over the country visit Rexburg.

Bob Franz, manager of Beehive Book in Rexburg, said that they offer 20 to 90 percent off during the week because of the unique nature of the customers.

“We get people coming in from all across the country who don’t have access to an LDS bookstore,” he said. “There’s not a store like ours anywhere in the world because we only offer LDS products.”

Franz says that many customers prefer coming in to the store rather than shopping online for LDS products because they can actually look at the product before they buy it.

Beehive also has authors visit the store to sign books while mothers are in town.

With many mothers wanting to buy groceries for their students, Albertson’s begins preparing in advance for their increased sales.

“We order in lots of extra groceries,” Kevin Stevens, Albertson’s manager, said. “We love to have the parents here.”

Employees at the grocery store work extra hours during the week to handle the larger crowds.

The store also sponsors a mother/daughter look-alike contest during the weekend. The winners receive gift certificates.