Students leaving can hurt business

With GCSU students traveling home to their families during Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, Milledgeville businesses are often affected by the loss of population. Many students that work at these businesses can attest to the changes that occur over the holiday season.

Emily Davidson, a senior literature major, has been an employee for Blackbird Coffee for four years and she can sense the change of pace that comes around this time each year.

“You can definitely say our morning regulars do not change because they are particularly working business people, but during the day, the usual pace gets much slower A few employees will trickle from other businesses, but there is a noticeable difference,” Davidson said.

Davidson tends to look at the brighter side of what the holidays bring.

“The day after Christmas is always packed,” Davidson said. “The holidays are a great time to buy gift cards, since they are excellent stocking stuffers, so we continue to do well because of that.”

Other restaurants on Hancock Street are feeling a similar pull, like The Brick for example, which gains a lot of revenue from the usual flow of students.

“Income goes down a bit without the late-night crowd, but lunch and dinner stays pretty much the same. I know there is a slight difference, but a lot of people from town still come in on a weekly basis during the holidays,” Joe Sanders, a junior, who has worked at The Brick for four years, said.

Despite the low levels of change, The Brick has made adjustments in an effort to increase business.

“This restaurant has started hosting bands on Wednesdays so that does bring in more customers. We have a lot of locals that come on those nights too,” Sanders said.

In other cases, with fast-food businesses closer to campus, the amount in sales dwindles to the point that if affects the employees themselves.

“We decrease our hours during Thanksgiving and during Christmas,” Michelle Dixon, a staff member of Chick-fil-A, said. “The majority of the staff will get time off and the supervisor generally works during these times when most of us travel back home.”

Although Dixon is not able to work during the holiday season, she takes it in stride.

“I enjoy having a break. It’s nice to be off of work when the majority of the students go home.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Dec 4 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry