During the hot and swampy summer months, college students flock from Gainesville to other areas. Unfortunately, local businesses rely on these college student customers to be successful. As the school year ends and summer heat begins, the student population diminishes, along with sales at local companies.
Students go back home to their families, study abroad, or travel. During slower summer months, businesses that target the college student demographic are faced with challenges. They must depend on support from local residents and change their business plans to stay afloat.
University of Florida student Stephanie De Varona is one of many college students who has left Gainesville and returned to her hometown of Boca Raton for the summer.
“I went home to be with my family, and I’m studying abroad,” said De Varona.“I only plan to visit Gainesville a couple of times before I move back in August.”
De Varona is not alone in this approach. Very few students remain in Gainesville from May to August.
In a DataUSA analysis from the Census Bureau, the average age of Gainesville residents in 2019 was 26 years old. Thirty percent of residents fell in the 18-24 age range, more than any other age group. Businesses whose target demographic falls within this age range are affected by the drastic change in population.
Bryan Pepper is a technician and frontman at Goodbike, a bicycle retailer and repair center. Pepper stated that at least 50% of his customer base is college students. During summer months, the bicycle shop shifts focus.
“We get a lot of flat tires when students are here. Quick, easy stuff,” Pepper said. “These days, we take bikes that hang out for a while and work on them.”
When technicians are not fixing bicycles for college students, they focus on repairing higher-end bikes for sale to locals.
Pepper commented on how this differs from sales in the fall, when Goodbike sells entry-level bikes to students coming in with their parents.
“We sell simple bikes during the school time, and more of the high-end bikes get sold during the off time,” Pepper stated.
Caffeine-fueled college students also frequent coffee shops during exam seasons for all-day study sessions. Coffee Culture is a coffee shop and a popular study location during the regular school year. During summer months, employees rely on local residents to fill the gap that college students leave.
“During afternoons and nights,” Coffee Culture barista Yuna Minor said, “business has definitely decreased.”
Minor attributed this decrease in sales to a lack of college students coming into the shop and studying. The shop’s busiest hours are now earlier in the day.
Minor stated that there are “a lot of long-term, older professionals who still come during the day.”
The coffee shop relies heavily on locals and regular customers during the off-season. Gainesville residents who come in for an early-morning or midday coffee account for the majority of Coffee Culture’s sales.
While college students often purchase from bike stores and coffee shops, many are also motivated by personal fitness. Local gyms experience cancellations and emptier fitness classes as students migrate home for the summer. Although Crunch Fitness is a nationwide franchise, it too must rely on support from locals during the summer months.
According to Lydia Wagner, manager-in-training at Crunch Fitness, nearly three-fourths of the gym’s customer base is students.
“There are some locals, for sure, but mostly everyone goes to UF or Santa Fe,” Wagner said. “There’s been a lot more cancellations and freezes. Right when summer hit, that was all that we were getting.”
Wagner also stated that some customers who have continued their memberships are college students taking summer classes. These remaining college students are scattered among older residents.
“It’s definitely more of the older crowd,” Wagner said.
These businesses have made some changes to account for the decrease in customers.
Crunch Fitness offered free workouts to teenagers for the month of May to encourage new business from locals.
.Likewise, Goodbike hosts annual events each summer to draw in out-of-towners and bring awareness to their business.
“We put on more events over summer, like our Summer Steamer race,” Pepper said. “People come from out of town for that.”
Coffee Culture accommodates for a slower season by scheduling fewer employees than during peak seasons.
“We had to take off a three-hour third shift to compensate,” Minor said.
By Hannah Schoff