Starkville businesses see fewer customers during summer breaks
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Mississippi State’s spring semester has come to a close, seniors have graduated and many students have moved home for the summer.
With many of the students leaving, local shops and restaurants may experience a decrease in foot traffic.
Social Media and Design Associate Brikley Spencer at Maroon and Co. said they try to provide incentives to shop during the summer.
“We definitely see a decrease in business and to kind of compensate for that we’ll provide more sales, advertise more deals and promotions to bring people in especially during orientation and game weekends and stuff like that,” Spencer said.
Although there is a decrease, Little Dooey owner Bart Wood said it is not as bad as it used to be.
“We do have a slow down, however, it is not as bad as it used to be say 15 years ago. Now, with the Cornerstone Park opening up with the softball and baseball tournaments each weekend a lot of people are still coming to Starkville during that void when Mississippi State is shut down and a lot of the kids are gone for the summertime and whatnot. That and I think with Mississippi State also they have clinics and they have camps so it’s always bringing a lot of people to the Starkville area,” Wood said.
Many of these businesses have college students making up the majority of their employees.
However, both Spencer and Wood agreed that it does not create a big issue.
“All of our employees are mainly college students but with a lot of people being out of town for the summer or back home for the summer, it kind of makes up for it. We are not having as many people come in so the amount of employees that we have works for us right now,” Spencer said.
“A lot of them still live in Starkville because they have their apartments here and they are paying a pretty good chunk for rent each month so they wanna kind of be here after going back home in May and being with Mom and Dad for a little bit, they wanna come back to Starkville and that always helps also,” Wood said.
Wood said they take it year by year.
“Almost 40 years in business, we’ve seen the summers where there is absolutely nothing in Starkville and now it seems like it is a little bit better and so we kind of just gear up each year and just handle it the best we can, and do what we do,” Wood said.
Wood said they are also considering shortening Little Dooey’s hours for the summer.
