It became a running a joke for weeks. A city known for its more than lively and sometimes raucous nightlife somehow didn’t plan for the Tartan Army’s invasion of local taprooms. Several thousand miles away, a storied barbecue joint had to turn people away—not because they ran out of ribs, but because they ran out of the cups and utensils needed to serve those meats. Meanwhile, a tattoo parlor’s social media giveaway became a permanent souvenir for World Cup fans, from locals to foreign visitors now abroad.
The World Cup saw plenty of cross-cultural culinary diplomacy—foreigners and Americans alike who had never heard of yerba mate, for example, were now sharing gourds with friends—complete with social media posts about foreign visitors expressing excitement over the hospitality they received in this year’s host cities. As fans descended from around the world to support their home countries, they also stumbled into local small businesses, proving the real winner of the World Cup is Main Street, USA.
According to a Bank of America note, card spending spending at brick-and-mortar stores, restaurants and bars across the 11 U.S. host cities rose 5.3% year-over-year in the three weeks ending June 27, compared to 3.8% in the rest of the country. It’s a reversal from the prior three weeks, when host cities had trailed the rest of the country.
