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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Local shops prepare for graduation

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In 2016, 19,477 students between 18 to 71 years old graduated from IU campuses, according to IU’s website. 

This year, undergraduate and graduate students will undertake commencement May 4 and 5.

For Bloomington stores, graduation weekend is an event they prepare for. Located on Kirkwood Avenue just down from the Sample Gates, the gift store Greetings sells apparel, IU merchandise and other trinkets.

The store owner used to say graduation weekend, like the first IU football home game of the season, was enough to keep the store running for the following months, employee Arman Reihani said.

“Overall, it’s a pretty big increase from a normal day,” Reihani said. “We also have the benefit of graduation being so close to Little 5. It’s one of those things, months down the road, we have to prepare for.”

Reihani said the store stocks certain items during graduation weekend that it doesn’t normally.

“We’ve been getting alumni apparel, which we don’t normally get,” Reihani said. “We get some IU gift-type stuff, and postcards, because people like to get pictures of the Sample Gates.”

A short walk down Kirkwood to Tracks Music & Videos shows much of the same IU alumni apparel in the window.

Tracks general manager Jay Wilkin said graduation weekend brings sales equivalent to a Saturday baseball game at home, except there are three days of it.

“It’s a good weekend,” Wilkin said. “It’s the only good weekend in May. Right after, business is going to fall off the cliff for that second and third week, until public school is out.”

Wilkin said along with alumni shirts and sweatshirts, other products also sell well.

“You do sell more of the stuff we call novelties, stickers and barware, and glasses and license plates,” Wilkin said. “Maybe more sweatshirts than you would expect for May.”

Tracks uses its entire floor space for sales, leaving none for storage. When certain items need restocked, an employee grabs them from an off-site warehouse.

“We’ll have a person each day to go back and forth to the warehouse to fill sizes,” Wilkin said. “You just have to make sure you have enough, especially if it’s a nice day Saturday.”

Wilkin said trends emerge based on certain types of clothing and colors. In the past, he’s been able to tell if it’s going to be a sweatshirt or tank top weekend, or whether light grey or dark grey will be more popular.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and it’s still really hard to predict,” Wilkin said. “There’s 90-year-old grandmas, there’s 9-year-old babies. You just have to have the shelf as full as you possibly have it to start, and then react.”

Wilkin and Reihani said their graduation sales are weather dependent.

“Last year, rain put people off a little bit,” Wilkin said. “But it’s still good for hotels and restaurants.”

Wilkin said the families that graduation brings to town make it a fun, positive environment.

“I continue to get older, and all the students stay the same,” Wilkin said. “They always stay 18 to 22. It keeps me young.”

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