Pokemon Go lures players to Circle

It was a few weeks ago that Gigi’s Cupcakes owner Dorrie Rubinstein first saw a teenager walk into her store and begin battling in a Pokemon Go “gym.” 

Rubinstein says she has seen a 20% increase in revenue since the gym — in Poke-speak, that’s a place where players can battle — popped up a few weeks ago. 

The Pokemon Go app, created by Ingress, allows users to catch Pokemon characters that appear. Eventually, players can battle one another in gyms. Pokemon Go is based on location, so users actually have to be in close proximity to a Pokemon to catch it.

Gigi’s Cupcakes and the Neptune statue are home to the only gyms on St. Armands Circle, but they aren’t the only locations that have made the Circle a destination for Pokemon Go fanatics.

Multiple businesses, including Daiquiri Deck, FantaSea and the Met, are home to PokeStops, which are blue portals that match a landmark.

At these locations, Pokemon Go players can spin the landmark to earn different items, such as eggs, potions, revival and PokeBalls.

Rubinstein has seen everything from parents bringing their children to the store for a cupcake and returning an hour later to an SUV full of adults piling into the store — all just to battle.

Recently, she began catering to Pokémon fans with Pikachu and PokeBall cupcakes.

“I saw the people coming in, and I already knew they were fans of the game, so I thought why not make the cupcakes?” Rubinstein said. “That creates a little more excitement and also generates revenue for the store.”

Rubinstein is even thinking about buying lures, which attract Pokemon to a location, to bring more people near the shop.

But Daiquiri Deck service manager Brett Rose calls being a PokeStop a double-edged sword.

Some people drive by and slow down in front of the restaurant to catch Pokemon. Staff has also seen as many as six people sharing a single smoothie while they play the game. Some customers have even gone so far as to try to climb behind daiquiri machines to catch Pokemon.

“For a week, the same group of 20 people were just drinking and dropping lures,” Rose said.

The seahorse outside of FantaSea is a PokeStop. FantaSea social media specialist Madeline Kinney thinks the game is bringing more traffic to the Circle, offering stores greater exposure.

“It makes you want to be out in the community more, makes you want to go to these places and find out what’s going on there and what all the hype is about,” she said.

While Kinney didn’t have specific numbers for FantaSea sales, Kinney said the PokeStop is causing people to stop in the store.

“It’s easy for parents to shop if their kids are already engaged in the game and gives them time to look around and enjoy the store,” she said.

Nearby, Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate broker associate Roger Pettingell used the app to his advantage when he dropped lures in an open house on Bird Key and advertised the listing as a PokeStop.

“We got a buzz,” he said. “We wanted to jump on it while it was still current.”

Pettingell said he would consider dropping more lures in the future and would be more likely to do so if he was based on the Circle. For now, though, Pettingell is waiting for the next big thing.

“The newness of it is done,” he said. “If I was going to go looking for Pokemon, I wouldn’t be on Bird Key.”

For now, the app is still creating a buzz around the Circle. 

“It’s the biggest thing going right now,” Rubinstein said.