Businesses adjust to Pitt’s fall traffic

Students are back, and they brought their money.

Bridget Lasch of Avalon Exchange in Oakland… Students are back, and they brought their money.

Bridget Lasch of Avalon Exchange in Oakland estimates her business loses 60 percent of its customers during the summer. Despite this, her store maintains regular hours year round.

“We try to find ways to stay alive when all the students are gone,” Lasch, whose business uses promotions and events to draw in customers during the slow summer months, said.

Avalon is just one example of Oakland retailers which face a crunch when Pitt and other nearby colleges hold their summer recesses. Despite the massive loss of students for four months out of the year, most businesses stay open and keep regular hours.

According to Stuart McLean, owner of Avalon, summer isn’t always the worst time of year for Oakland businesses. It also depends on the volume of students regularly frequenting the business.

“Just because a business is in Oakland among all these students doesn’t ensure success,” McLean said.

Jason Gidas, of Gidas’ Flowers, said that most of the individuals who walk into his Forbes Avenue store are Pitt students. But as far as actual paying customers are concerned, he estimates that 10 to 20 percent of his business comes from Pitt students. The rest comes from workers in UPMC and residents of Oakland and its surrounding neighborhoods, he said. Gidas maintains regular hours throughout the year, although he says that summer is a slow time for his business. But it’s not because of a lack of clientele.

“In the summer, people plant flowers instead of buy,” he said. “It’s just the nature of the business.”

During the summer, Marc Matus, of Gus Miller’s Newstand, also depends on the hospital workers and local residents to make up for lost customers.

“There’s no reason to not stay open,” said Matus, who also said non-student customers make up at least 50 percent of his business.

Even though UPMC and local businesses provide adequate business for Oakland shops, sometimes it still isn’t enough.

One Oakland business which did change its hours is Sorrento’s Pizzeria, which opened only for lunch during the summer. The decision was partly influenced by Pitt’s summer recess, according to Sorrento’s co-owner Steven D’Achille.

“Business was fine during the day, because we draw mainly professionals for lunch,” he said. “But our dinner crowd is almost entirely students, so it didn’t make sense to stay open in the evenings,” he said.

According to Alex Coyne, operations manager for the Oakland Business Improvement District, he isn’t aware of any businesses that closed during summer recess. “Our goal is to boost customer traffic year round,” he said. “We don’t look at business as a seasonal thing.”

Despite this outlook, it’s hard to deny the impact summer recess has on local business, according to Rachael Wentz, a bartender at Pittsburgh Cafe.

“70 percent of our customers are students,” she said, “so you can imagine what it’s like when everyone’s gone.”