Some businesses see drop in sales due to Austin City Limits road closures

AUSTIN, Texas - As the second weekend of Austin City Limits 2022 kicks off, businesses inside Zilker Park are seeing a boost in business. 

Slow North and Lisa Crowder Jewelry are both selling for the first time at ACL.

"It's awesome, everyone's in such a great mood, and having a really good time. It's super fun and busy, can't complain," Lisa Crowder, owner of Lisa Crowder Jewelry, said.

"I think we've done really well so far today, a lot of sales, really fun, we love people coming in," Jonnie McDaniel with Slow North said.

Many people came by to look at products.

"Versus a regular day of not being at festival, is like a thousand times, something like that, way more people coming through here," Crowder said.

However, for businesses behind road closures around the park, they see a drop in traffic.

"It's really hard for me to see all this business literally walking by us," Pam Littlejohn, general manager of Holla Mode Thai Style Ice Cream, said.

The food truck sits at Barton Springs and Sterzing, right at the road closure. It's hard for them to deliver orders, plus the ice cream would melt.

"It's closed off, I can't do Door Dash really, and I can't do Uber Eats due to the fact that our drivers can't get in," Littlejohn said. 'It's really, really hard on us."

She says they get a little busier after the big shows, but it's still not enough.

"It's a dip, we do most of our business in about two hours, but it doesn't bring us up to the day-to-day, year-over-year sales at all," Littlejohn said.

Richard Ferris, who owns the property in the area, also struggles with the road closures.

Littlejohn and Ferris also say trash is a concern.

"It was a nice place to do business until the city decided to block the street, and we can't park cars. I'm the only one that's landlocked," Ferris said. "They killed my business as far as parking goes."