While University students disappear in large numbers from Bowling Green during the summer months, local businesses still keep their numbers high.

The lack of University students in the city is evident during the summer months, considering a large percentage of Bowling Green’s population is students. While this could be seen as a potential problem for local businesses, the shops and restaurants of Bowling Green prove it isn’t too much of an issue.

Ashley Peguies, an employee at Grounds For Thought, explains what the downtown coffee shop, bookstore and roaster is like on a typical summer day.

“The mornings are still pretty busy. There is people going to work and people who work in the community [who] still come in for coffee. The early afternoons are also still pretty busy, but around late afternoon and night you can see it being slower than it usually is during the school year. And that’s because our night time is usually when you see more college business, where students come in and study and grab a cup of coffee,” she says.

But these quieter evenings in the store don’t affect sales much. When asked if the amount of sales changes during the summer months, Peguies responded, “Not really, they’re just different. Different kind of sales.”

“I think the fact that it’s a bookstore also helps contribute to the success of the business, because during the summers is usually when people like to read,” she adds. “You see an increase in book sales during the summer.”

Grounds For Thought also adapts by altering their menu to contain more summer drinks like tropical lattes and fruity lemonades, according to Peguies.

But Grounds For Thought isn’t the only business which sees quiet evenings in the summer. Some open late businesses notice a drop in traffic during night hours because of the disappeared student population. One of these business is The Cookie Jar & More.

“It’s not as busy during the summer, I will say that. Usually during the school year it’s a lot more busy and hectic, more during the nights especially,” said Shenna McGlone, a long time employee of The Cookie Jar & More.

While McGlone states The Cookie Jar & More has less sales during the summer, business is still alive because of large event and business orders.

“The benefit of the summer is we get a lot more weddings that we cater to and we get a lot more bigger orders for businesses,” she said.

Myles’ Pizza Pub also has local events to thank for consistent business. Myles’ Pizza Pub Owner, Chip Myles, says the pizzeria doesn’t just get by during the summer, it’s their busiest time of the year.

“My business in the summer is bigger than when the students are here. June, July and August are my three biggest months of the whole year. We have so many events in Bowling Green, Ohio and we have such a good reputation that out of town people just swamp us. We just really keep busy. It’s better for us in the summer than it is when the University is in session because people travel, they come here from all over,” he said.

But like Grounds For Thought, sales patterns aren’t the same at Myles’ Pizza Pub in the summer as they are during the academic year. When the students aren’t around, sales are more consistent throughout the week, according to Myles’.

“The difference is you do stronger business seven days out of the week as when the students are here you do 50, 60 percent of your business on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, maybe even 70 percent. That’s not true during the summer,” he says.

McGlone also shares how The Cookie Jar & More has a different summer sales pattern.

“During the school year we don’t have as many big orders, we just have a lot of little orders,” she says.

The sales during the summer for local businesses are different, but certainly not less.