Retail Stores Prepare for Summer on Syracuse’s Marshall Street Summer Sales on Syracuse's Marshall Street

Shops prepare for the shortage of students on Syracuse University's campus.

While the retail business never stops, school does. Some business are affected by summer vacation more than others, and as Frank Salerno explains, those effects are prominent on one of Syracuse’s most famous streets.

Frank Salerno: A block off of Syracuse University’s campus sits one of the city of Syracuse’s largest business hot spots: Marshall Street. But, summer is coming, and students are leaving. With no students around, many parents will not visit either, and the retail stores located on Marshall street prepare to lose a large portion of their customers.

Summers are hard for stores like J Michael Shoes. Erik Hicks, the owner of the shop, says a lot of time goes in to planning ahead for the summer drought.

Erik Hicks: Once the students leave the business drops drastically, we just try to plan our inventory. Like if you’re a regular customer, a student customer, and you looked around the store right now you probably don’t have the selection you would like September or October. We do our best to just plan keep our inventory levels low. And payroll we try to cut down too.

Salerno: This sentiment doesn’t translate all the way down Marshall street. About 5 doors down, Manny’s quality SU clothing, and manager Bill Nester, embrace the summer storm of college hopefuls looking to get new SU apparel.

Bill Nester: Well, you know the summers really aren’t that bad, not as bad as people think. Once high schools start letting out for the summer vacation period we get a lot of people looking the school over or just family vacations in Syracuse or going through Syracuse and they usually stop by.

Salerno: It’s a tale of two stores, and two clothing styles. SU apperal sales stay consistent, while J Michael’s products dip in sales. But the summer works similarly for both shops in terms of employment.

With students gone, the summer would seem to be the time for local Syracuse residents to take those jobs, but these store managers are not quick to hand out short term positions.

Nester: If they’re going to be employed here in the summertime we also like them here in the fall too, because they get to know the store, they know a few things, how to run the register, and then we go right into football season.

Salerno: Businesses are even hesitant to hire local students in the summer who live near close by.

Hicks: Students who are local, yes we do hire them just for breaks and summers but I prefer to hire someone who is going to be here all year long if I was going to hire someone local.

Salerno: Whether with customers or not, the shops of Marshall street always stay busy. When sales are low, racking shelves and preparing for the football season blitz becomes the priority.

Nester: We actually get a lot of our inventory in for Fall starting in June so we are always busy doing something, even if we’re not doing, ringing the register lets call it.

Salerno: So if you’re in Syracuse this summer, head to Marshall street to find Erik Hicks, Bill Nester, and all of the retail employees hard at work, and on the clock. Frank Salerno, NCC News.

SYRACUSE, NY (NCC News) — Summer is coming in Syracuse and Syracuse University students are getting ready to leave for three months, emptying out the often-packed streets like Marshall Street. With fewer people on or around SU’s campus, the retail stores on Marshall street have to prepare for what some owners call a “ghost town,” with very few students, faculty, or parents in the area.

With summer coming up, Manny’s Quality SU Clothing’s manager, Bill Nester, expects less traffic, but still looks to benefit from campus visitors and sports camp attendees.

“The summers really aren’t that bad, not as bad as people think,” Nester said. “Once high schools start letting out for summer vacation, we get a lot of people looking the school over.”

Manny's Quality SU Clothing uses the summer period to organize the fall inventory and prepare for the football season rush of customers.
Manny’s Quality SU Clothing uses the summer period to organize the fall inventory and prepare for the football season rush of customers.
© 2019 Frank Salerno

But the sentiment doesn’t translate for stores that don’t specialize in Syracuse University clothing. At J Michael’s Shoes, manager Erick Hicks said he prepares for a summer shortage of customers.

“Once the students leave, the business drops drastically,” Hicks said. “I’ve worked here for 20 years, and it’s always been this way. You just have to prepare accordingly.”

Unlike business numbers, the preparation does translate to both stores’ staff, as both shops’ employees spend a lot of their summer preparing inventory for the fall rush of students and families in or around campus.

Both store employees also strategize about employment opportunities for the months when their main employee base, Syracuse University students, aren’t always around.

Reported by
Frank Salerno

Frank Salerno

Frank Salerno is a sophomore Broadcast and Digital Journalism major and a Music History and Cultures minor at Syracuse University. Along with work for NCC News, he is also the Sports Director for CitrusTV. He is from Bergen County, New Jersey.

Other stories by Frank Salerno

Related Articles