For these apparel stores, game days always provide an increase in sales, but rivalry games have historically brought in much more profit for these stores. Even for stores that don’t primarily sell apparel, the impact is huge.

“We’re a little different — we’re like 95 percent textbooks here, so the clothing is like a little extra that we do,” Tom Muth, co-owner of Collegeville Textbook Company, said. “Our clothing sales, I mean, they are up five to 10 times as much, it’s a night and day difference, and then book sales typically drop down because no one wants to study.”

However, the impact of the games themselves do affect the amount of customers the stores have. Political theory and constitutional democracy senior Sean Dunne said he would be much more likely to buy apparel if the Spartans were doing better in football.

“Lately we’ve been so bad, I feel less inclined to buy MSU gear,” Dunne said. “Especially if we get killed by U-M this weekend, I’d be even less likely to buy something new.”

In fact, some stores are still reeling from the decrease in business from March Madness losses this spring.

“We’re still trying to come back from Final Four business,” Chad Freehauf, manager of Campus Corner, said. “(Fans are) still buying merchandise even though the football team’s not getting the favorable results. But it would probably help if they would win a couple.”

Overall, these stores still continue to see more business with rivalry games. Despite the MSU football record, these shops still expect to see a large number of sales because of the sheer number of people who will come to East Lansing.

“People just come to be part of the event, the ambiance, even if they don’t go to the game,” Mike Wylie, assistant manager at the Student Book Store, said.

To prepare for this increase in sales, customers and clothes flying off the racks, some stores will stay open longer, staff more employees and order more inventory.

“We pretty much just, when we write the orders, we make sure we have everything in stock for this,” Tatum said. “We definitely bring in the anti-Michigan shirts — we bring a lot of those in. We know the bigger games are later on in the season, so we just brought on the heavier stuff a little later on.”

The rivalry game between MSU and U-M largely contributes to the apparel shops' profits, and many of the stores on Grand River Avenue rely on the game to bring in revenue.

“We depend on the home game weekends to bring revenue into the store because it brings so many people into town,” Freehauf said. “It’s a big reason why stores like this are here.”