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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 1980)
Page 8 THE BATTALION TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1980 TEXAS A&M VS. SMU SPEND THE WEEKEND IN DALLAS AND SEE THE AGGIES TAKE ON THE SMU MUSTANGS IN TEXAS STADIUM. ^SATURDAY ‘NOVEMBER 1 *1:30 P.M. ‘TEXAS STADIUM FOR TICKET INFO. CALL A&M TICKET OFFICE (713) 845-2311 OR SMU TICKET OFFICE (214) 692-2901 GIG ’EM AGGIES! Summer slump Decrease in enrollment can mean trouble for area merchants By JANA L. SIMS Battalion Reporter Citizens of Brazos County, stu dents of Texas A&M University — suppose that tomorrow you awoke to find one-fifth of the businesses in the county had disappeared? The hordes of fast-food restaurants that fill your impatient empty sto machs had shrunk into a Burger Doodle on the other side of town. The grocery stores on most blocks had vanished, leaving a few scattered here and there. Your feet itched all /■ I A Storage Space FOR RENT Secure • Well Lighted Various Sizes • Behind U-RENT-M in College Station The Storage Station 693-0551 l Alpha I Gamma! Rho'si HAUNTED HOUSE 418 I College Main^ (2 Blocks From Loupot's) OCTOBER 30-31 M 812 P.M. $1.00 weekend because your favorite dance hall had packed up and left no forwarding address. Perhaps you might feel like some of the local merchants do when sum mer arrives — and one-third of the Texas A&M enrollment leaves. Averaging the enrollment for the fall and spring semesters of each school year and then comparing them to the average enrollment of the two summer sessions for the past 10 years, enrollment drops an aver age of 38.7 percent when the sum mer rolls around. (Or, if you prefer, fall enrollment swells an average of 276.6 percent when September knocks on summer’s door.) Quite a change in population. Or look at the 1970 Census and U.S. Department of Transportation Urban Transportation Study figures, which includes students at Texas A&M. The estimated population for the Brazos Valley in 1980 is 106,500. Enrollment this fall at the University was a record 33,499. The average enrollment of both summer sessions this past summer was 11,350. The difference in the two student figures is 22,149, or 20.8 percent of the esti mated population for our area. When one-fifth of the population of Brazos County “disappears” every nine months, what does it do to the merchants? “Summer? — That’s the time when you run out to the street and pull people in,” James Busse, mana ger of University Flowers, said with a smile. He said summer is “bad. news” when it comes to business. Busse estimates that students make up 75 percent of his shop’s business and with the onset of sum mer, one-half of University Flowers’ business drops off. Busse said that University Flow ers, which has been open about three years, keeps shorter hours in the summer to compensate for the lack of business, but the shop tries to keep the same number of em ployees. “If we can help them through the hard times (summer),” Busse said, “they’ll help us through the hard times (fall)." But the “hard times” of summer aren’t enough to discourage Univer sity Flowers from staying open. Bus se said he thought the shop broke even this past summer and said those merce said that University students’ impact on business has been great historically, but recently the impact has been lessened. He said the local economy has been able to diversify because of industrial development. He cited the production of new plants such as those built by Texas Instruments and Babcock and Wilcox. Nevertheless, an in-house study By JI Batt« ployees in the production sides -x The U.S. C business must work fewer litfpne looking f their workdays end when thedfifiryan-College ing is done. “The big problem is psycho) al,” Gessner said. Business di the summer, he said, and the>; approaches and “the roof caves i0 problem. Preliminary dicate a 7.8 ir housing it on. Oftherec B. J. ’s Package Store, a liquors : units (houses a An in-house study released by the University showed that in 1979students contributed over $65million to the local economy. owned by none other than B.J h been in business three yean, B.J. said summer to him means trying to “survive. ” He sail 11 ness drops by 30 to 40 percent® ?f r ’ P ro ^ essor summer like “everybody’s inh’n ™ n ‘ n § at Te gate. Phil Callahan, who has oir, involved with the shop just accept that summer is a problem and try to make the best of it. Looking at local trade as a whole, the Sales Tax Analyses which are re ported quarterly by the state com ptroller’s office show that in 1979 the gross sales increased an average of 12.2 percent each quarter in Brazos County. But broken down into cate gories based on the type of sales, the figures reveal a different pattern in some cases. Gross sales for general merchan dise stores increased $5.8 million, but between the second and third quarters — the two quarters that contain the summer months — gross sales increased only $355,000. Gross sales for food stores in creased $6.2 million from January to December 1979, but sales decreased by $137,000 in the second quarter, and decreased again by $647,000 in the third quarter. Automotive dealers and gas sta tions reported gross sales of $17.3 million for the first quarter of 1979, $21.1 million for the second quarter, decreasing to $20.3 million for the third quarter and rising again to $23.3 million for the fourth quarter. A spokesman for the Bryan- College Station Chamber of Corn- released by the University showed that in 1979 students contributed over $65 million to the local eco- Swensen’s Ice Cream Factor) e cent census ble, 2,245 an Vacancies? 1 on? A study is nder the sup ompanng cen > ounts. Gardner’s h that since nomy. The Chamber spokesman said the summer impact is not as great as it has been for two reasons: 1) A lot of students have jobs here during the fall and spring semesters and leave in the summer, and 2) There has been an increase in graduate students — some who have spouses that hold jobs and take roots here in the summer. Bernie Gessner, owner of the 8- year-old Aggie Cleaners in North- gate, said in the Bryan-College Sta tion area, “the peaks and valleys are mountainous.” He said 75 percent of his business is college related — Texas A&M fa culty or staff — if not actually stu dents. Add this to the fact that the cleaning business is typically slower in the summer, and Gessner said his business drops two-thirds in the summer. Gessner said he is forced to look for institutional business in the sum mer, which includes “calling chur ches to see if they need their choir robes cleaned.” Aggie Cleaners stays open the same hours in the summer, but em- D.D. Willia IneerforTexa ighways and Census (offi iom as a dwe d has an ou Housing p allege Stati acancy rate is Ask any ap; two years with his wife Jane, reason they didn’t want to lot® |J uc t ec J j n Aj: Northgate is because of that® |exas A&M gr dependence on students. not coun t e d “We wanted to appeal to tit P r °bably list tire community,” he said, ^Bences, effect on his business is notasji He said that late night (from 9 p.m. on) is not as g( summer because mostofSwei late business is Texas A&M still Also, Callahan said, sales are level in summer because no football weekends with evei coming in town. Managers or owners of Carroll’s Baskets and Wide, Curiosity Shop and the Texas Fame said their businessei affected just slightly by s® Kaye Allen, the new owner Beer Garden, said business about 60 percent in the sumJ Art Hickle, owner of AR Pk . » » phy, estimates that40percentol ir /|/3I customers are Texas A&M stiKkfU A/t w In the summer, he said, busiiMfT creases by about 20 percent, bill is a combination of the ladofsi dents and the fact that sum months are normally slow(«| photography business. Private eatery is Peking’s first . Bob Hope v idential cam Light as orig I Hope’s NB 1 iPresident,” ha bl Saturday, N bal debates ca YOUNG ENGINEERS DO YOU WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN ALL PHASES OF POWER PLANT DESIGN? ELECTRICALS MECHANICALS CIVILS TIPPETT & GEE, INC CONSULTING ENGINEERS FOR THE POWER INDUSTRY INTERVIEWING DECEMBER/MAY GRADUATES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, PLACEMENT OFFICE Design Engineers for power plants throughout the United States and Alaska, including the nearby Gibbons Creek Plant. Our offices are located in the West Texas city of Abilene Formed in 1954 67% Average annual growth rate for the past 4 years. GROW IN A PROFESSIONAL ATMOSPHERE TIPPETT & GEE, INC. 502 N. WILLIS STREET ABILENE, TEXAS 79603 915-673-8291 United Press International PEKING — Good food and pri vate business are quietly being re vived down a narrow, dusty alleyway in the heart of communist China. A mother, anxious about the fu ture of her two unemployed sons, made culinary history this month when she opened her own res taurant. It is the first privately run restaurant in Peking in nearly two decades. Except for a brief period in the early 1960s when small private food stalls made an appearance, all res taurants in the capital had been oper- Hope filmec i at Eastern .arrived in Coll 3 MSC Town “WITCH” Way to Prioriteas? 3609 Place E. 29th Bryan 946-4360 >RIOHITEAS BLOBS OF Wl-GIVING I YOU DAN BE ANYTHING YOU WANT AT reenhc Zacharlas Greenhouse 5th ANNUAL HALLOWEEN BALL 4Lffl)8!3M= JHURS., OCT. 30 693-9781 Daniel Caron 'Cashmere Sweaters] at 'JhL "Your New/Y fork Connection" 4340 Carter Creak Parkway 011 28th Streel ' 848-8709 Mon.-Sat., 10 to 6 T?) ft B'NAI B'fllTH HILlgl, FOUNDATION October 29 7:30 p.m Come Dance at Hillel Country Western & Folk Dance with Ilene Gould leading Refreshments available. Hillel Jewish Student Center 800 Jersey C.S. ated by the government since the communist regime was established in 1949. Recent economic reforms have lifted some of the restraints on “indi vidual economy” — private busi ness. It was a humble beginning for Liu Guixin, 47, the jovial, plump mother of five and proprietor of a three-table establishment that occupies what once was the family’s living room. Mrs. Liu said it took 1,100 yuan ($660) to set up the shop. Her hus band borrowed from his employer, she had some savings and the bank loaned her half the necessary capital expenditure. Then it took Mrs. Liu six months of wrangling with government red tape before she finally opened the eatery at No. 47 Quihua (Jade Flow er) Hutong, one of the countless re sidential compounds of old, grey- brick huts where real life goes on behind the splendor of the archways and palaces. She said she decided to open her own restaurant because her two youngest sons had waited for two years for the government to ait „ ,, them jobs. Millions of young J Several bun are without employment in « me ) V1 1 , because there are too nianypf^ Ils .’ j lowe and too few jobs for people wii ’ ree e com specialist skills. Hope perfc “I thought it could help the! Sollie White C eminent and help my two s« light, and toh Mrs. Liu said. She now is loro Jfeturn to Agg their employer, paying en'^ive filming it monthly wage amounting to SZ f v The only thing that distingu ;al J k at eI{ her house from those of her 4 tarsformer p bors is a handwritten sign abort oh Carso front„door It says Yuerbilrg T Randall guon — the restaurant that plfi its customers. She said she cooks more till different courses, including sue! otic items as bear paws andswal nest. Her specialty is duck, n® eight different ways. Soup, a main dish and ricecoS cents at her place, and usuallyn; than 60 cents at a bigger, state- establishment. “Workers with jobs nearby® have great difficulties findings? for lunch, ” she said. “Nowtheye here.” COUPON i -41- MSC POLITICAL FORUM presents Congressman Jack Kemp (r ny) *Co-Author of Kemp/Roth Tax Reform Bill *1980 GOP contender for Vice-President - - ! ^ Kemp/Roth, Reagan and Ydu! Thursday, October 30,1980 Rudder Theater 12:30 pm Admission is Free For More Information-Call 845-1515 eagah TACOFEST Tacos for only 540 107 Dominik College Station 3312 S. College Bryan Limit 10 tacos with this coupon any Mon., Tues. or Wed, in October from 5-8:30 p.m. What in the world is a rock group doing on KAMU? We never take the classics for granite. We explore the world of classical music from practice to performance and from rehears al to recital. We take you into the heart of the music and the minds of its makers through incomparable concerts and penetrating interviews. Join us for great performances by promising prodigies and mature masters ... for classical music at the peak of perfection. &)WE KAMU-FM 90.9 Public Radio... A World of Differed SSSSTSw’snw? twtTV i* r*w, hww a-t