Businesses prepare for busy Memorial Day Weekend | News

THOMASVILLE, GA (WALB) - It's not like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but Memorial Day is definitely one holiday that provides a boost to local economies.

Between the holiday travel and family barbeques, many businesses are in for a busy weekend.

Memorial Day is a time to honor those fallen soldiers who gave their lives to protect our freedoms.

But many folks do use this long weekend as an opportunity to travel or to just get together with family.

"Most of the time when it comes to a holiday like Memorial Day, folks like to barbeque. They like to grill out and spend time with their families and just have a good time cooking and grilling," said Harveys Store Manager Rocky Johnson.

The days leading up to Memorial Day are always busy for grocery stores like Harveys.

Especially in south Georgia where a lot of the food is home grown. "We have a lot of fresh corn on the corn and fresh Georgia Peaches that we have available here at Harvey's. We also sell a lot of ribs and hamburger meat," said Johnson.

And with a wide variety of things to buy, the Thomasville Travel Center is also planning for a busy weekend. "We have a restaurant people can come and eat at. All types of foods to buy. And we have lottery. The Greyhound is really helping to pick up business," said Cashier Chelsea Vinson.

Travel Center employees says this will be the first real test to see if adding Greyhound was a smart decision.

"This is our first year having Greyhound, so this will be our first holiday also. It's already started picking up and we hope it will pick up a little more. We have a bunch of people coming in and buying tickets," said Vinson.

Johnson says while he does expect a steady stream of customers Friday and Sunday, he predicts Saturday to be one of their busiest days of the year.

Greyhound now stops twice a day at the Thomasville Travel Center and from there you can go to Atlanta, Tallahassee, or anywhere else with a Greyhound stop.

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