While Auburn University students are preparing to take finals and return home for the holiday break, Auburn stores are preparing for a lull in business.
The Gnu's Room owner Tina Tatum said she has noticed that during Auburn University breaks, such as the week for Thanksgiving and the three weeks during the winter holidays, business slows. Because she's learned to expect it, Tatum said The Gnu's Room takes action to work around the sharp change in the town's demographics.
"Thanksgiving break, in particular, we decided to close, not just for Thanksgiving but for Friday and Saturday afterwards," Tatum said. "Previous experience has told us we're just not going to do enough business to warrant paying employees and being open."
Tatum said The Gnu's Room will have different hours during the Christmas break as well.
"We'll probably shorten our hours, and we might be closed a couple of extra days with Christmas and New Year's," Tatum said.
Businesses that rely heavily on students for sales, such as J&M Bookstore, see a drop in sales during the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, said Trey Johnston, owner and manager of J&M Bookstore.
"We're a college bookstore, and we are here to serve Auburn University students," Johnston said. "When the students leave town, we have a very severe decrease in the sales here at J&M Bookstore."
The location of the Iron Bowl affects J&M Bookstore during Thanksgiving break, but Johnston said Christmas break is generally a slow time.
"We love to have the Iron Bowl played in Auburn," Johnston said. "It always impacts us positively, and it carries over, especially after you win the Iron Bowl. This year is the first time in my lifetime, and I'm 60 years old, that we've had such a bad season and we won't have any excitement going into Christmas."
To compensate for the lag in business, Johnston said J&M Bookstore will probably shorten its hours and will have fewer employees working during the holiday season.
However, some local businesses do not see much of a change when Auburn University has breaks.
Barbara Birdsong, owner of Perch Bead Shoppe and Design Studio, said her business has a diverse clientele and does not see a lot of lag during Auburn University breaks.
"I feel like there's a drop off when students leave, but our sales aren't really reflecting that much since we do get a lot of local people that come in," Birdsong said.
Because so much business comes from local shoppers, Birdsong said the foot traffic slows a little during breaks, but her workshops' attendance still continues to be strong.
"Typically the students aren't the one coming to the workshops," Birdsong said. "I guess I get a little bit of every demographic locally that our business has been able to sustain itself without the students, which I know is a hard thing for a lot of local businesses."
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