The Zippin Pippin at Bay Beach Amusement Park in Green Bay (File Photo)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Pony rides, cotton candy and tickets for a dime.
If you grew up going to Bay Beach Amusement Park, you likely have these memories connect to childhood summers.
It’s no surprise then, that the Green Bay staple turned up in a survey asking about the top nostalgic summer businesses.
Business lender Advance Funds Network says it surveyed 3,021 Americans 45 and older to “identify the local businesses and attractions most closely associated with nostalgic summer memories.”
Bay Beach came in second in Wisconsin in the poll. Editors wrote:
Bay Beach Amusement Park has been part of Green Bay summers since 1892, when the site first opened as a lakeside recreation area. Today, the city-owned park keeps the old amusement-park spirit alive with rides, concessions, a pavilion and its Zippin Pippin wooden roller coaster. Set near the water, it has the feel of a classic family day out: tickets in hand, children moving between rides, parents watching from benches and the breeze off the bay making the whole afternoon feel tied to summer.
Tops in Wisconsin was a summertime staple in the Milwaukee area, Kopp’s Frozen Custard in Glendale.
Kopp’s Frozen Custard was founded in 1950 and became one of the Milwaukee area’s great warm-weather traditions. Known for burgers, sundaes, shakes, rich frozen custard and rotating flavors, Kopp’s turns a quick dessert stop into something closer to a local ritual. On summer evenings, the scene is simple and familiar: families gathering outside, cones beginning to soften, flavor-of-the-day decisions being debated, and the first bite of custard arriving cold enough to stop the heat for a moment.
One of Wisconsin’s top tourist destinations came in third: the Original Wisconsin Ducks in Wisconsin Dells.
The Original Wisconsin Ducks launched in the summer of 1946, when a World War II amphibious vehicle was first used to carry visitors across the land and water around Wisconsin Dells. Decades later, the tours remain one of the area’s most familiar vacation rituals, splashing into the Wisconsin River and Lake Delton before climbing through wooded trails and sandbars. For families, the appeal starts before the splash: children waiting for the vehicle to leave the road, parents ready with cameras, and everyone bracing for the moment the tour becomes part boat ride, part road trip.
“People return to these businesses because they offer something a national chain cannot easily recreate. The food, rides, or souvenirs matter, but so do the memories attached to them and the sense that the business belongs to that particular community,” Irving Betesh, CRO of Advance Funds Network, said in a news release.
“The challenge is that many seasonal businesses have only a narrow window in which to generate most of their annual revenue. Rising supply costs, staffing pressures, unpredictable weather, and off-season cash-flow gaps can place even a popular local institution under considerable strain. The encouraging finding is that customers recognize this and appear willing to spend a little more to help keep these places open for the next generation.”
While these nostalgic summer spots are still in business, poll respondents said there were some types of destinations they wished were as common today as during their childhoods:
- Drive-in movie theaters: 22%
- Old-school arcades: 21%
- Family-owned ice cream parlors: 11%
- Local amusement parks: 10%
- Family diners: 10%
- Drive-in restaurants: 8%
- Independent candy stores: 7%
- Mini-golf courses: 4%
- Beachfront snack bars: 3%
- Small-town souvenir shops: 3%
- Lakeside marinas or boat-rental stands: 1%
Respondents said they would be willing to spend, on average, $41 more at a long-running local business than at a national chain.
The poll also found:
- 22% believed they preserve local character.
- 17% said they give families traditions to return to.
- 12% said they keep money circulating within the local economy.
- 10% said they create seasonal jobs.
- 10% said they support local tourism.
- 9% said they make towns more memorable.
- 7% valued the fact that many are family-owned.
- 6% said they give young people their first jobs.
- 5% said they support other nearby small businesses.
- 3% said they make road trips and vacations feel more distinctive.
Close to 78% of respondents said they have felt genuinely sad when a nostalgic local summer business closed.
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