Wellington businesses swell from rally attendees

WELLINGTON — With thousands of rally attendees passing through Wellington on Saturday, downtown business boomed for several individuals. Red Iron Bar & Grille was bustling in the early evening ahead of Saturday's rally — so much so the staff were too busy to talk at length to The Chronicle-Telegram. Across the street, Scent Depot co-owner David Arcuri closed shop about 11:30 a.m. after a water leak upstairs. Despite the setback, he said the store probably made more money selling bottled water and doughnuts from Mad Batter Pastry Emporium. Arcuri had posted on Facebook ahead of Saturday's rally offering shelter to anyone if the event got out of hand downtown. He was pleasantly surprised to find no one needed to take him up on the offer. "Everybody's been calm, everybody's been nice that's been walking," he said. "The people in the vehicles have been nice. The traffic's horrendous, obviously." Scent Depot has only been open about two years, so Arcuri couldn't compare the traffic to that of County Fair week. Down the street at Special Effects Custom Printing, business skyrocketed. The print shop sells Donal Trump memorabilia, and received orders from out of state after a controversy online about some of their shirts brought news coverage, employee Michele Bantoto said. She estimated they'd sold about 500 shirts in the past few days, with orders coming in from Texas, Florida, Virginia and Cincinnati. The shop has been in business for about a decade, with Saturday's crowd far surpassing that of the Lorain County Fair. "It's amazing to see," she said. "Our little community needed something." Outside Wellington's brick-and-mortar businesses, Saturday not only marked former President Donald Trump's first public rally since the end of his presidency, but the first time back out on the vendor circuit for those selling his wares. Alongside state Route 18 and scattered throughout downtown Wellington, vendors selling President Donald Trump flags, buttons, hats and T-shirts, bobbleheads and other trinkets set up shop to catch those walking to the Lorain County Fairgrounds. One of those was Reggie Jones, of Charlotte, North Carolina. He estimated Saturday's event was roughly his 20th rally selling his own screen-printed lanyards, shirts and other items. "I got into it by being a fan," Jones said. He's worked the vendor circuit since 2016. "I have a screen-printing business, so it's easy for me to participate in a lot of shirt events, being that I print myself." He added later, "It looks easy, it looks like you're just collecting but it's work." Prior to Trump's presidency, Jones sold other T-shirts and designs, but only for Republican political candidates. "I'm on the side I believe in," he said. Across the street from Jones, Steven Aneshansley made the drive from Fairfield County and has been selling items at Kelly Street and Route 18 since Tuesday. He estimates its about his 20th rally. He stumbled into the circuit, he said, after he was invited to work one in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Since then, he's been to every state between Michigan and Florida, he said, hauling everything in a two-door Honda Accord. "I've built it up to be able to get to a place with what I have and pack it all in that little car," he said. His assistant, Kayleigh, who declined to give her last name, also happened into working Saturday. She said she bought a bunch of stuff from him earlier in the week, and asked if he needed help — an offer he quickly took up. Looking out at the traffic creeping by, she said it was the busiest she'd seen her hometown. "Its been on and off really busy, but all the people that have come up have been really nice, that's just their nature. Even people that I was very caught off guard, more enthusiastic than what you would expect. I've had people from Kentucky … Carolinas, someone from New Hampshire." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.