Univeristy's Spring Break affects local businesses

Texas State University enrolls over 30,000 students, which is over half the San Marcos population. When half of a town’s population leaves for a week, things change.

When students left town for Spring Break this March, many local businesses had decreased sales.

"Business was incredibly slow. We anticipate it being slow, but this year was the slowest it’s been in four years,” Lauren Morrow, waitress at Café on the Square, said. The restaurant prepared less homemade foods, like their salsa, in anticipation of the decline in business and never kept a full staff during the week of Texas State’s Spring Break.

The lack of students in San Marcos also caused a decline in business for The Coffee Pot. Amber Jones, barista, said that The Coffee Pot also cut shifts, ordered less food ingredients and even closed early some nights.

“It’s been really slow. Business went down a lot because most of our customers are students who come here to study,” Jones said. “Anytime school is not in session, we get really slow.”

Stores at the outlet malls were greatly affected by the university’s Spring Break. Jennifer Miller, manager of the Bath and Body Works Outlet, said that business was slower during the week of Spring Break. Bath and Body Works also decreased shifts to save

the company money.

“As far as employees go, Texas State took Spring Break before the other schools. That week wasn’t bad for us, so we just didn’t need as many employees,” Miller said.

However, business wasn’t bad everywhere during Spring Break. Monica Espinoza, leasing and marketing manager for Westfield Apartments, said that the apartment office was busier than ever. The complex signed over 65 percent of their pre-leases during Spring Break, making over half of the complex ready for move-in in August.

“I guess everyone thought it would be slow and that they’d beat everyone, but everyone had the same idea, to go look for an apartment,” Espinoza said. “We were really busy almost every day over Spring Break.”

The week after spring break is also hard on businesses and employees. Jones said that last week was stressful because the café was busy.

“It’s the busiest it’s ever been right now because of tests after Spring Break,” Jones said. “For me, it’s stressful because I’ve been working the busiest shifts. But I make better money.”

According to Miller, last week was hectic for stores at the outlet mall, due to the fact that surrounding schools in Austin and San Antonio were just starting their Spring Breaks. Bath and Body Works was particularly busy last week. Miller said that the managers at Bath and Body Works had to work longer hours because the sales associates were in school during the day.

“We actually had to bring in associates from the other [Bath and Body Works] stores for critical times, like from noon to 6 p.m.,” Miller said, “But it was a big boom for business. We cleared our deficit. But Texas State’s Spring Break decreased our sales.”

Miller said it would be more beneficial for business if Texas State had the same Spring Break as other schools.

“Last year, it went much smoother. We could give people more hours when they could actually work. I know it stressed a lot of the girls out to have to focus on school and the needs of the business last week,” Miller said.

Miller also said that even though Texas State’s Spring Break is over, the store stays relatively busy.

“This week we’ll get a lot more Spring Breakers from other states,” Miller said. “For us, March is a madness in general.”