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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

No recession for agritainment

Our informal survey of agritainment farms found that the vast majority had increased sales this fall.

As we discussed in our article Middle of the road is road to ruin (www.whitehutchinson.com/ news/ lenews/ 2008/ november_december/ article102.shtml#article) , during economic turndowns, people don’t necessarily cut back on affordable, local away-from-home entertainment spending. During tough economic times, people look for affordable experiences that will make them temporarily forget any kind of misery or anxiety that has come their way. During the Great Depression, movie theaters offered that escape and business thrived. 

Speaking of Halloween, Sophia, our office mascot Chihuahua, decided she wasn’t going to miss out on treats and dressed up as a pumpkin. She calls it ‘woof-woof or treat.’

We have surveyed our many agritainment clients who offer fall-Halloween activities on their farms during September and October. These include family adventure farms, corn mazes and u-pick pumpkin field and apple orchards. We have also received information from our sources about other agritainment farms throughout the country. The vast majority reported that their sales were up this year, some by as much as 20%. Considering that the current economic turmoil and recession didn’t really kick in until October and that the majority of the business these agritainment farms do in the fall takes place in October, this seems to be good anecdotal evidence that good value, affordable, community-based family entertainment and eatertainment venues, including FECs, may weather this recession far better than most industries.

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