By
Benjamin Kim
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Clothing store, restaurants report slow business during
After a slow holiday season, many university-area businesses are looking forward to students coming back.
For most businesses around campus, students make up much of the customers as well as the workforce.
"Business is always slow during this time of year," said Mike Rukasim, manager of University Drug Store, 943 E. University Blvd. Rukasim has worked at the store since 1972.
"Most of the businesses in the area are geared toward clientele from the university one way or another, whether it's students, faculty or staff," he said.
The store also employs several students who go home for the holidays, and the cuts some hours of operation to help balance slower business and fewer employees.
"It just doesn't pay to stay open during those extra hours," Rukasim said.
Students account for about 90 percent of the customers at Kampus Kuts, 1037 N. Park Ave., and during winter break the hair salon experienced 20 percent slower business, said Henry Gonzalez, who has worked at Kampus Kuts for the past six years.
Even so, he looked at the break positively.
"It's a good time for us to take a vacation and some personal time too," Gonzalez said. "We welcome these slow times."
Business was also slow at Los Betos, 914 E. Speedway Blvd., said Gaime Sosa, a 35-year-old cashier who has worked at the Mexican restaurant for the past three years.
Although the restaurant is open 24 hours a day, its busiest hours are between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., when students are awake and looking for a late night snack, Sosa said.
"As students come back, it'll make business better," he said.
Gentle Ben's Brewing Co., 965 E. University Blvd., also experienced slower business around Christmas, but special events in January have kept customers coming through the doors, said owner Dennis Arnold.
Shows at Centennial Hall, UA basketball games, and a National Chamber of Commerce convention has kept the restaurant and brewery busy this month, he said. The only difference was not having the Insight.com Bowl game in Tucson, making business slower between Christmas and New Year's Day.
"(During the school year) we get a lot of people from the university and downtown businessmen," Arnold said. "It's slower (over winter break), but we find enough business that's not university driven."
However, Gentle Ben's employs about 75 UA students, many of whom want to go home for the holidays.
"That stretches us pretty thin," Arnold said.
Arizona Wildwear, 813 N. Park Ave., centers its focus on UA clothing and items, and over winter break, the store receives most of its business from tourists and alumni, said Veronica Daum, a 21-year-old sales clerk.
Daum, a student at Mesa State College in Colorado, has worked the past two holiday seasons at the store while in town.
The store tried to lure customers during break with a holiday sale, but business was slower than the last holiday season, she said.
"But I think it's not just us - it's slow everywhere," she said.
"It's so dead around here compared to during the school year," said Brenda Noon, 19, another sales clerk. Business has already started picking up as students began to move into the residence halls earlier this week, she added.
