Richard Alcala, co-owner of Alcala’s Western Wear, spent the weekend learning what the BeyHive can do.
Beyoncé was in town performing at Soldier Field as part of her Cowboy Carter tour, with her last show on Sunday, and it meant concertgoers were looking to don their best western gear. And the BeyHive — the nickname for Beyoncé’s devoted fanbase — showed out at the West Town shop famous for its cowboy apparel, accessories and western boots, which resulted in sales that were double the business’s typical best weekend.
“We were never expecting all the people, all the fans,” Richard Alcala said. “They’re very loyal, and they all want to be dressed from head to toe.”
Loyal may be an understatement. Some shoppers, in search of the perfect bolo tie, were visiting the store from as far as Australia just for the concert. And they were willing to spend hundreds of dollars to dress the part.
“Honestly, it was just such a huge, diverse crowd of people going to her concert,” said Mani Alcala, marketing director for Alcala’s. “The diversity that it brought here to the stores was pretty awesome to see. You had old, young, anyone you can imagine was here in the store and everybody was interacting. You just get to see smiles on everybody’s faces.”
The hat department last week was where much of the craziness happened, Mani Alcala said. And shoppers would accessorize their hats in unique ways with pins and ribbons.
The women’s department was also “booming,” he said. “It was so hard to walk in this place with how many people were over here.”
He also said the store’s in-house tailors were overbooked due to the boom in business, but they managed to get orders done on time.
Shelves and display cases, typically full, were still being restocked by staff on Monday afternoon.
“This is usually full, but it’s dwindled down to nothing,” Mani Alcala said, as he gestured to its bolo tie selection. “It’s all because of the concert.”
The family-run business, at 1733 W. Chicago Ave., has been selling western attire and accessories since 1972 and boasts a footwear collection of more than 8,000 pairs of boots. It’s welcomed a number of famous customers like Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and the late Mexican singer Vicente Fernandez.
Mani Alcala’s father, uncles and aunts are the owners of Alcala’s. His grandfather, Luis, founded the store and died in 2014.
While the business has dressed Chicago for over 50 years, this was a different beast, Mani Alcala said.
“Honestly, this was a different type of crowd. You could tell the people that came in were true fans,” he said.
Many fans prepared for the concert at the start of the year, when tickets went on sale. But store purchases picked up over the last two weeks, he said.
“[I] think a lot of people were even first-time wearers of western, but they were having fun with it. You can tell that with the outfits. They had a fashion sense, and it was their own playground.”
Richard Alcala, Mani Alcala’s uncle, was featured in a now-viral TikTok video, expressing his gratitude for Beyoncé and her fans. “Thank God for Beyoncé,” he said in the video.
Alcala’s busiest time of year is typically around Father’s Day, which this year is June 15. The business hosts a three-day sale and event that includes live music and food. But Mani Alcala estimates its Beyoncé-fueled sales boost is double what it typically brings in Father’s Day weekend.
“[My father] is pretty new to the whole BeyHive. … I think he wasn’t expecting that fanbase to be as they were — coming in and being so loyal,” Mani Alcala said. “I mean, she said country, and everybody [came] in to do country.”
The store was so busy that even people that work in the office came to help.
“Everybody was working twice as hard,” he said. “I mean, we have people that even came on their day off just to give us a hand.”
Other western apparel stores, like El Arriero Western Wear and Fashion in Logan Square, also saw a jump in sales over the weekend.
“We are so grateful and surprised,” said Yuliana Sanchez, whose husband owns the store.
Shoppers came in to mostly buy cowboy hats, she said.
“We’re a small business; we’ve never seen a bump in sales like this,” she said.
Sanchez and Mani Alcala noted the diversity of Beyoncé’s fanbase and said they hope their stores will continue to see a variety of customers.
“We’ve got some really great new customers, that was the awesome part about it,” Mani Alcala said.