As summer in Bloomington nears, businesses prepare themselves for a different focus and a different crowd.
Sales at the Pizza Express campus store drop about 80 percent when students leave for summer, said Brian Hernandez, manager at Pizza Express’s west-side store.
“We have come to appreciate the seasonality of our business,” said Jeff Mease, CEO and founder of One World Enterprises, which owns Pizza Express.
A large fraction of the Bloomington population is students, and not all students stay in Bloomington over the summer. Businesses that rely on students for income have to adjust the way they operate to maximize profits during this time.
In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau reported a permanent population of 55,406 in Bloomington. The total current number of IU students is 38,247, according to the IU Factbook. Students make up about 41 percent of the total population of Bloomington, permanent and nonpermanent, both currently and in accordance with the 2005 data.