“With a local team you get a lot more business,” said Rick Miller, assistant manager of the Kmart in Vernon Township.

“The farther you go in any sport the better it is,” said Tim Carey, merchandise manager for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The team has a number of retail outlets, including one at Grove City’s outlet center

“Our stores are crowded, too. As soon as we put it out on the shelves, it’s sold.”

Even some places not normally thought as Steelers retail centers are doing a brisk merchandise business.

“Unbelievable. It’s been busy the whole season, but the last two weeks have been crazy,” said Garrett Smith, an employee at Thermax, a sweeper store in the Park Avenue Plaza.

The store carries more than 200 different Steelers items.

“We’re selling a bit of it,” said Renee Silverman, advertising manager for Smoker Friendly, a 13-store cigarette and cigar retail chain in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. “Our regular customers are buying it.”

The Steelers in the Super Bowl also is pushing some high-end electronics sales, too. Flat screen liquid crystal display and plasma TVs are being sold, said Alan Flick of Flick’s TV & Appliance in Vernon Township.

“It comes up in conversation quite frequently,” Flick said of talking with customers about why they are purchasing a new television now. “It may be something they were thinking about and they’re ready to make the plunge,” he said.

Name-brand TVs with LCD or plasma can range from $500 to several thousand, depending on size.

A cheaper, but short-term solution may be renting a big-screen for the game. A 52-inch television can rent for $150 to $200 for 30 days, the typical minimum contract.

Rentway, a rent-to-own appliance dealer at the Downtown Mall, has about two dozen big-screen TVs rented out for Super Bowl weekend, said Gina Boughner, store manager.

“We got some church organizations holding Super Bowl parties and a few are going up to the college,” Boughner said. She said there are only five televisions left at her store to rent, but more might be available if given enough notice.

Rent-A-Center on Conneaut Lake Road only has two televisions remaining and has rented out a dozen.

“Get them while they’re hot,” said assistant manager John Morrell, mentioning that normally the store on average rents one television every two weeks.