HERSHEY - The hotels are full, restaurants are at full staff and retailers are stocking extras from sports shorts to gift baskets.

This time of year, in this town, that can mean only one thing: The wrestlers are coming.

More than 400 high school wrestlers, hundreds of coaches and officials, and tens of thousands of fans will descend on Hershey for the PIAA wrestling championships this weekend, transforming the "Sweetest Place on Earth" into Pennsylvania's wrestling central.

"Wrestling is pretty big here," said Mark Lofland, manager of the Reebok outlet store just down the road from the Giant Center, where the championships will be held today through Saturday. "It's definitely going to get busy."

That's because the wrestling championships are easily the biggest high school sporting event of the year. Last year's tournament, the first to be held in the Giant Center, drew nearly 65,000 fans, up 10,000 from when the event was held next door in Hersheypark Arena. No other PIAA event comes close, said PIAA spokeswoman Melizza Mertz.

"Don't even think about trying to go out for dinner," Lofland said. "It gets interesting."

In the arena, workers are taping down and scrubbing up the mats, where matches will be held six at a time.

This year's tournament brings 448 wrestlers from 217 schools - and that's a lot of mouths to feed.

"Basically, it means a lot of steaks," said Rodney Reese, assistant general manager of Applebee's restaurant.

"Most of the time, we won't see a lot of wrestlers during the day, when they have to make weight for their matches," Reese said. "But starting in the afternoon, and then into dinner, they'll start pouring in. And mostly, they want heavy food."

Like most of the town's hotels, the Hilton Garden Inn is sold out for three nights, said general manager Steve Wennick.

And it's not just the wrestlers who need attention.

"I just sent out a gift basket for - here it is - a state championships official, Thomas Manns," said Linda McKinney, owner of Fruit and Gift Baskets of Hershey. "A whole basket full of Hershey's chocolate."

McKinney said she gets a handful of orders each year for the wrestling championships, although she has yet to deliver a gift basket for a wrestler.

"It's not Mother's Day, but it's good business," she said.

At Toy Liquidators at the Hershey Outlets, they're expecting a slight boost in weekend business, like they get any time a family-friendly event is held in town.

But next door, at Lofland's Reebok store, the wrestling tournament can be a bonanza.

"We usually notice a spike about Thursday, but it really picks up Friday and Saturday," said Lofland, himself a former wrestler at Central York and Pennsbury. "A lot of people who've been eliminated stick around for the finals, and when they're not wrestling they have nothing better to do."

Chocolate World, which houses the chocolate company's movie theater, simulated factory tour and outlet store, sees a similar boost.

"We start to see people Thursday, but Friday we get more school groups, and Saturday a lot more families," said Bob Adams, manager of Chocolate World's visitors center.

"Wrestling is pretty big, because it's a three-day period, and it's lots of individuals wrestling and lots of families coming to see them," Adams said. "It's just a really good time of year."