Local businesses saw mixed results from this year's Saturday opening to firearm deer season.

Those reactions will be on the agenda at the Pennsylvania Game Commission's upcoming first meeting of 2020 on Jan. 25.

A recently released draft agenda shows proposed season durations and bag limits among the topics of discussion.

Both archery season and firearms season look similar, but with the addition of one Sunday for each specialty.

Also, the return of the Saturday opening day for firearms season is incorporated in next year's proposed schedule.

Some area stores and eateries said they prospered from this year's Saturday opener, while others had a more negative experience.

Roxy's Diner in Prospect opened an hour earlier to accommodate the new season opener.

“That Saturday was the busiest,” said Tonia Hufnagel, a waitress at the diner. “They could eat before going out.”

Hufnagel said the day provided a big boost for their business, and customers anxiously anticipated and planned for their breakfast weeks beforehand. She said most customers seemed excited about hunting on Saturday.

“The hunters were in here talking about it two weeks prior,” Hufnagel said. “They were excited about it.”

While some local restaurants benefited, retail locations appeared to struggle.

“We were actually more busy on Friday than Saturday, which is rare,” said Tyler Snider, an employee of Boot Box in Grove City.

Snider said it was the slowest Saturday after Thanksgiving they had seen in a long time, especially considering that the company extends Black Friday sales into the weekend. “Usually, we do very well, but we were not busy that day at all,” he said.

He said in the weeks that followed, customers didn't specifically say they were in the woods that day instead of shopping, but he had a good hunch based on the store's regular clientele.

“Half of our business is hunters, and the other half is construction workers and laborers,” Snider said. “You just put two and two together.”

Randy Santucci, the southwest regional director for Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, argued retail sporting good stores from across the state experienced a similar trend.

Santucci said he contacted 10 sporting good stores and received 10 letters opposing the Saturday opener and reporting losses.

“I'm 10 for 10 with unquestionable opposition to this,” he said.

One of the letters was written by Thomas Grice, president of Grice Gun Shop in Clearfield, Pa., and was addressed and sent to the Pennsylvania Game Commission Board.

In the letter, Grice said his company saw losses on Black Friday, opening day and Sunday for a combined $206,041 of lost revenue over that weekend.

“I would venture to guess the uptick in people who benefitted from the Saturday opener was a wash, offset by those of us who have to work in retail jobs due to it being the busiest weekend of the year for most retail businesses,” Grice said in the letter.

According to the letter, Grice sells more than 15,000 firearms annually through his store's retail location.

Santucci argued the feedback he's receiving about the retail results are exactly what he expected to come from the change to a Saturday opener.

He said the board ignored the 65 percent opposition in data it received and the 81 percent of 13,000 hunters who contacted the agency.

Butler County resident James “Jim” Daley resigned from his seat on the board in April, citing concerns that the board was not data-driven in its decision.

Daley said he initially brought the idea to the board, but after he saw the data opposing the idea, he changed his mind and voted against the change.

The board passed the change in a 5-3 vote.

“A lot of hunters didn't want it, and a lot of small businesses didn't want it,” Daley said. “(The board) had the same data in hand that I did.”

Daley said many of those he spoke to or who called to oppose the change said there was too much tradition involved to make a change. He said the season's proximity to Thanksgiving further elevated this for many hunters.

According to Daley, the board promised to evaluate the impact of the change and incorporate the findings into its decision to continue the Saturday open strategy.

“I don't know what the data will show now,” Daley said. “I hope they really take a good hard look at it.”

Travis Lau, a spokesperson for the game commission, said the Saturday opener is in next year's schedule as a placeholder.

“That meeting will be the first opportunity since Saturday open to offer public comment,” Lau said.

According to Lau, as of December the commission has sold around 3,300 fewer licenses than last year.

He said that while this is another decrease, it is a milder loss than in years past.

“There's a big difference in losing 30,000 to losing 3,300,” Lau said.

He said commissioners will make their decision after they've seen all the data and heard the public on the subject.