Despite Winter Term having been busy for many of the students staying at Elon University for classes, the same cannot be said for many of the local businesses around the campus that are dependent on the student body.
For these businesses, Winter Term is one of the slowest times of the year — not only because many students choose not to take the one class in January, but also because the weather disheartens potential customers.
Beth Kelly, store manager for All That JAS, said “Winter Term is generally a lot slower than the fall and spring semester.
“We would maybe get 10 students in here a day, compared to the fall where we would get 40-50,” she said.
Phil Smith, one of the proprietors of The Oak House also experienced slower student business over Winter Term.
“During J-term there are only two blocks of classes every day, so we only get business a little before 8:30am and a little before 1:30 p.m. Compared to the spring, when — because of the scheduling differences — we are always busy. But despite having less customers, this J-term has been a lot better than last year’s winter term, we had 14 percent higher sales than last year, which was a pleasant surprise,” Smith said.
During the cold of January, Smitty’s Homemade Ice Cream also suffered a drop in customers.
According to Michael Basirico, an employee for Smitty’s, “business slowed down during J-term and continued to slow down during fake break.”
But business is expected to pick up with the return of Elon students and the start of the spring semester.
“February and March are always our busiest months, mainly because sorority recruitment would have just ended, so come Monday we are going to be slammed with orders, which is pretty awesome,” Kelly said. “Our most popular item would be our stitched letter shirts. We make all of those shirts by hand and people love them.”
This same excitement for the spring season is also felt by the people working at The Oak House and Smitty’s.
“No matter what year it is, or what is going on, the Spring is always the busiest time for us,” said Smith from The Oak House. “Our most popular coffee throughout the year is most probably the caramel macchiato, and our most popular beer is the Red Oak.”
With warmth around the corner, Smitty’s is also preparing for a busy spring.
“There are a lot more shifts that are scheduled in the Spring because we anticipate much larger crowds,” Basirico said. “Our most popular flavor is most likely our Brown Sugar Oatmeal, I have to serve that to least a couple of people every shift.”