It doesn’t take one of my editors to figure that with the multitude of visitors to DeKalb during Homecoming Week, local businesses will have more than their usual “parade” of customers.

Those establishments that logically would be affected the most would be restaurants, both fast-food and more formal lodging sites (see hotels story), florists and nightclubs.

Larry Cubalchini, a manager at the McDonald’s restaurant at 805 W. Lincoln Hwy., said Homecoming Day is the McBusiest of the year, and that weekend is one-and-a-half to two times McBusier than usual.

Cubalchini said none of the employees get the day off, though individuals’ hours are held to a McMinimum. High school employees are asked to work at night so the employees from NIU can McParty that night. Breakfast-time right after the Homecoming parade is so McCrowded that the restaurant borrows McQuipment from the McDonald’s headquarters in Oakbrook, which is closed on weekends.

“I’d say you can count on a very busy weekend for Homecoming if everything clicks—if the weather’s nice, if the football team wins,” said Mike Muzzarelli, owner of the Crystal Pistol Beach Club.

Flowers are making a comeback around Homecoming time, said Oscar Hansen, manager at Glidden Campus Florists.

“The last few years, people are starting to enjoy traditions more,” Hansen said. “It makes for a more meaningful college time instead of just blowing it off.”

Hansen said Homecoming is the fourth busiest time of the year for his shop behind Valentine’s Day, Sweetheart’s Day and Mother’s Day and he added that Glidden’s has sales and inventory figures from the last 10 Homecomings for reference. Large chrysanthemums are the most popular flower, Hansen said.

At McCabe’s, manager Sammy Amayri said his staff prepares a month in advance for the hordes of Homecoming fun-seekers, enlarging the club’s stock to double or triple its usual size. Amayri said a large portion of the customers for the club’s “single largest weekend of the year” are a different but familiar crowd.

Homecoming is “a reunion type of thing … It’s the people who went away to get a career and came back to refresh their memory about DeKalb,” Amayri said.

“It’s (Homecoming) a welcome addition for increased sales and we could all use more sales,” DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow said.