STATE COLLEGE - The Penn State football team has departed for Southern California, where it will play in the Rose Bowl, but businesses back in State College are still benefiting from merchandise sales leading up to the big game.
One local store, McLanahan’s Penn State Room, said the team’s recent success has increased sales both in the store and online.
“People area ordering – it’s tenfold of what we’ve had in the past,” said Jennifer Schoch, manager of McLanahan’s. “Everyone is very excited. I do a lot of mail orders. We’re shipping all over the country.”
Schoch said they’ve seen a steady increase over the entire season.
As Penn State started piling up win after win, game day business in the downtown area turned into an all-weekend affair.
"Once they started doing better and better, you saw the orders going up. Our busyness on Saturday home games would start Thursday night, go through Friday and then definitely on game day and Sundays,” Schoch said.
Schoch said although a Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl appearance was unexpected, they were prepared for the influx of shoppers.
But a request from head coach James Franklin did change things up.
"If anything, we weren't prepared for [coach] Franklin to say ‘I want another white out,’” Schoch said. “The white out is hard to prepare. Our inexpensive line -- we carry all the time, we always have white. But in your brand-name stuff, once you have one white out you kind of sell out."
Other businesses downtown said they’ve also seen an increase in sales.
The Student Bookstore said it has started to sell out of Rose Bowl gear.
Managers said it could get even crazier if Penn State brings home the Leishman Trophy, which goes to the Rose Bowl winner.
"I was pretty much shipping every day for the past three weeks up until Christmas with the excitement of it. So I can only imagine winning the Rose Bowl," Schoch said.
Businesses said if Penn State does win the Rose Bowl title they will be ordering new championship merchandise as quickly as they can.
Regardless of what happens, managers said they expect Big Ten champion apparel to continue to be a top-selling product until next year.
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