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Business owners in Bonner Springs and Edwardsville say they are feeling some effects from the country’s economic slowdown, but for the most part, they’re doing well.

Sales tax receipts for Bonner Springs, as well as for Edwardsville, seem to bear them out.

For March, Bonner Springs had $249,000 in sales tax receipts, a 19.6 percent increase over March 2007, which came to $208,285. For the fiscal year to date — from July 2007 to March 2008 — the city had $2.48 million in receipts, which compares to $2.14 million for the same period a year ago, a 15.8 percent increase.

For Edwardsville, March sales tax receipts came to $21,770 — a 42.6 percent increase over March 2007 total of $15,270. For the fiscal year to date, Edwardsville sales tax receipts totaled $172,000, a 16.1 percent increase over the same period last year of $148,300.

“People don’t order as much as they used to,” said Maria Lui, manager of Red Fortune Chinese Restaurant, 117 Oak St.

Still, Lui said the number of people who come to eat at the restaurant hasn’t changed.

“We still have our regulars,” she said.

Lui said she notices the money people spend in the restaurant seems to change when the price of gasoline increases.

Also, she said, the restaurant’s food costs have gone up, though she didn’t know by what percentage. Still, she said, the restaurant hasn’t had to cut any hours of employees.

Just down the street at Dairy Queen, 103 E. Front St., Andrea Hammeke, manager and co-owner, said the she’s seen a “big increase in the last couple months.”

She said it’s like that each spring. When the sun comes up she said people are in the mood for ice cream.

“I don’t see any change,” Hammeke said. “I think people’s spending habits, when they have less money, they don’t go out to expensive restaurants — they come to Dairy Queen for a treat. Same thing if you don’t have lot of money and you go out for a treat. We get it good at both ends.”

Bryan Albers has a few different business concerns in Bonner Springs, with the latest being the David House, 221 W. Front St., which offers bed-and-breakfast stays, private dinners and event hosting in a renovated early-Bonner Springs home.

Albers said because the David House only opened last December he couldn’t say whether the economic situation was affecting the business.

“We’re starting to get some good bookings,” he said.

As for Able Inc., Albers’ main business at 113 Oak St., it hasn’t been affected much, he said. The company produces training and testing materials, including software, for stockbrokers and insurance agents.

“A lot of times when they lose jobs, people get training for another one,” Albers said. “I wouldn’t say we’re recession-proof, but certainly better than a lot of companies in that regard.”

Jill Jenkins, owner and operator of Magnum Opus, 129 Nettleton Ave., also said she hasn’t seen any effects of the national economy’s downturn in her sales.

“Business has been very good,” she said, which she attributed in part to some additional advertising she’d taken out.

“I feel really lucky,” Jenkins said. “I think people are being cautious when spending their money looking for something that’s one-of-a-kind, and they want to support local artists.” On the other side of the ledger, though, Jenkins said the cost for her to make silver jewelry has increased.

“Silver prices are skyrocketing,” Jenkins said. “They’re at an all-time-high. That definitely affects the pieces I make and sell.”

Jenkins said she’s had to raise some prices, but “I try to absorb as much as I can.”

Mike MacDonald, co-owner and operator of Mac’s Place, 580 S. Fourth St., in Edwardsville, said his business wasn’t hurting either.

“One of the nice things about the bar business and the restaurant business, it’s sort of recession-proof,” MacDonald said. “Whether people are happy or sad, they find a reason to drink.”

Nichole Seaton, owner of Victorian Window, a recently closed boutique at 220 Cedar St., said the economy “definitely had something to do with” the store’s closing but there were other factors she didn’t want discuss.

Marcia Ashford, director of economic development for Bonner Springs, is sanguine about the city’s economic health for the near future.

The East and Qest coasts, plus Michigan, “have been hit a lot harder than the Midwest,” Ashford said.

Ashford’s job itself, which consists of attracting new businesses to Bonner Springs, has not been affected by the national economic situation, she said. Ashford said she thought the federal economic-stimulus checks promised to American taxpayers in next month — which for most single people will come to $600 — would help to stimulate the local economy.

As for her family, “I think personally we’ll spend ours on a vacation to visit our daughter,” Ashford said. “I’m sure there’ll be individuals who use that money to pay bills, sure, but for the most part they’re seeing money as a windfall.”

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