TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — It was a busy day at Gentle Ben’s with football games playing on TVs and people coming in to enjoy dinner. However, during the summer, business was slow for them.
“There’s no events going on, there’s nothing that draws people down to campus, and there aren’t any students either,” Richard Fifer described.
Fifer owns Gentle Ben’s Brewing Company, Agave House, and Bacio Italiano in Main Gate Square. Sales, he said, went down about 75% during the summer.
“You’ve got to save for the summertime knowing that you’re going to lose money in that time frame,” he said. “You just have to weather the storm and be used to it and plan accordingly.”
However, with students back at the university, sales are back up for him again. The ten days before school starts, he said, are the busiest ten days of the entire year.
“So it goes from nothing to everything literally overnight, and it’s all of the students that are coming in with their parents,” he said.
During football season he said business goes really well. While business is good during basketball season, he said during football season they tend to see more customers.
“The football games are an all day event, bring in a lot of business,” Fifer said. “Basketball brings a little business up until March, and then during March Madness we see a large uptick.”
Meanwhile, businesses in Downtown Tucson are also seeing a spike in customers.
“It definitely picks up in the fall when we see students coming back in and then even the snowbirds,” Stefanie Shirley said.
Shirley is the marketing director for the Hub, Playground, and Corbett’s, which all have the same owners.
“It slows down a bit in the summer. It is nice to really still accommodate to the local community here,” she said.
Summer sales, she said, go down about 25%. That’s why she said they have summer specials.
“For Hub we did introduce our happy hour really to kind of get that crowd again in the middle of the day,” Shirley said.
In the fall, she said sales go up during college move-in, then go slightly down, and then back up. The winter season, she said, gets even busier with more events in downtown and holiday parties.
“Kind of more towards the end of September and October is when we really start seeing it pick up more, especially with the weather getting better as well,” she said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
