The Miss Mississippi pageant may be over, but the effects are lasting.

Just days after Hannah Roberts was crowned the 2015 Miss Mississippi Saturday, downtown Vicksburg merchants were still talking about the impact the pageant had on their businesses.

“It’s always great when you have an event in town that brings people who aren’t residents,” Lurline Simmons at Crown to Heels said.

With contestants’ families and friends, plus the families of the princes and princesses, the shops along Washington Street saw a surplus in out-of-town traffic.

“Some of the girls needed a tutu or something like that to add to their costume and we were able to take care of that,” Norma Massey of Fredrick’s said.

One event that drew in traffic was the autograph signing party on Thursday morning. Many of the stores hosted two contestants whose friends and families came to see them and then stayed to shop.

“The autograph party was great,” Massey said. “I mean we had so many people in here, probably the best autograph party we’ve ever had, such a crowd. It stayed like that the whole time.”

Miss Southern Magnolia Briana Exum was in contact with Peterson’s, where she signed autographs, about possibly buying a lamp for a friend. Massey was proud that one of the girls at her store, Miss Historic South Hannah Whitlock, made it in the top eleven.

Miss New South Arrielle Marie Dale, encouraged her family and friends to purchase goods at Shanon Shealy’s store, The Dragonfly, where she was signing autographs.

“Everybody was just so friendly and outgoing and supportive of each other, which I enjoy seeing,” Massey said.

Having fewer contestants in the pageant did change the amount of traffic some merchants saw compared to years past, according to Simmons, but the influx in customers was still noticeable compared to regular days.

“We definitely saw a big impact, and our sales spiked for the week from what it had been in previous weeks,” Shealy said.

Barbara Willingham, of Willingham’s, said she is thankful the pageant takes place in Vicksburg because it positively affects her business and the city. She believes the addition of certain items to her merchandise has helped increase sales during pageant week.

“I think the reason we’ve done so well during the pageant is we’ve changed and we have clothes in here now,” Willingham said. “Women love clothes and jewelry.”

The new owner of Blush & Bashful, Holly Claborn, said she even sold out of some items.

“I had just gotten back from market a couple weeks ago, and so I ordered a lot of extra dresses and things. Some of the dresses that I ordered from market sold out before I could even get them online,” Claborn said.

Massey said the pageant couldn’t have happened at a better time. Normally, business slows down at the end of the month, but for the month of June, Massey did not have that problem.

“We hated for pageant week to end,” Massey said. “It was so much fun.”

These downtown stores are kicking off Fourth of July weekend with a watermelon social from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday. Merchants want to let the public know they are staying open later.