CRIVITZ, Wis. — For the past two months Joe Verbeten has been mounting a lot of scopes and helping customers get ready for the upcoming deer gun season.
He mounts anywhere from three to seven scopes a day in the sporting goods area of Witt’s Piggly Wiggly and Ace Hardware in Crivitz.
“My days are pretty much filled behind this counter helping people pick out rifles for deer hunting and mounting optics for them, ammunition, slings and whatever they need,” Verbeten said.
The nine-day deer gun season opens Saturday. Many people across Wisconsin will head to their deer stands, cottages and deer camps across the state.
“Deer hunting weekend up here is like a Fourth of July weekend,” Verbeten said. “There’s people everywhere.”
According to the group, Hunting Works for Wisconsin, hunters spend $2.6 billion annually in the state. Much of that is tied to the upcoming hunt.
Places like Witt’s Piggly Wiggly will see that surge of hunters in the coming days.
“Deer hunting ends up being our second biggest holiday for the entire year,” said Rebecca Zillges, vice president of Witt’s Food Inc. “Fourth of July is first and deer hunting is second.”
Add in jobs, salaries and wages and Hunting Works for Wisconsin said hunting has a $4 billion impact in the state.
“We have 130 employees right now, and in the summer it’s about 160. It allows us to be able to keep them employed throughout the entire year,” Zillges said.
Verbeten said he’ll stay busy right up to Friday night. Then there’s Saturday.
“I will be hunting myself,” he said. “But what we see then is a lot of emergency stuff. I lost my magazine. I lost my ammunition. They’re in to buy that kind of stuff.”
