The summer months are right around the corner, and businesses in Kent are preparing for another summer season.
With students leaving for summer to go back home and stay with family, one would think that businesses downtown would be slow, but Jacob Klemm, manager at Panini’s Bar and Grill, said it is actually quite the opposite.
“During the school year, it stays steady all the way through,” Klemm said. “Once summer comes, we open all the patio doors and we get really busy.”
To keep up with the busy crowd, Klemm said Panini’s staff double the amount of workers in comparison to during the school year and just hired 12 new workers this past week to prepare for summer.
Justin Heiser, owner of Kent Sportswear, is also hard at work preparing his business for summer. He says the summer months are normally busier than the winter but less busy than the fall.
“With Destination Kent State, the freshman orientation that runs basically from the whole month of June, it keeps us extremely busy,” Heiser said. “There are a bunch of freshmen in town for the first time, they need Kent State gear, and we are the go-to place for that.”
Right now, Heiser is working to make sure shirts will be fully stocked and said it is important to have a heavy stocking process during April and May in order to ensure that shirts do not run out during June.
“I am excited for the summer season. June is just so busy for us, it is constant go, go, go,” Heiser said. “We will have a few weeks to settle down and restock in July, and then it’s time to get ready for the fall season and shift gears to football items and sweatshirts.”
Gwen Rosenberg, owner of Popped!, says summer is always a relaxing time as business stays pretty steady.
“Business seems pretty evenly balanced — December is our busiest month of the year and the rest of the year is well-balanced,” Rosenberg said. “We get a lot of traffic from prospective students and visitors.”
During the summer, downtown Kent hosts many events which Rosenberg credits for helping to bring in a lot of foot traffic to the store.
“There are a ton of events downtown that draw the attention of families and even students that stay in Kent over the summer. There’s music festivals, Heritage Fest and a number of other events,” Rosenberg said. “Pretty much anything you can think of is happening in downtown Kent during the summer, so that pulls in customers from not just the city, but the surrounding areas as well.”
Michela Rocco, owner of Rocco’s Cupcake Café, says the café has less walk-in business during the summer due to students going home for break, but stays busy with events such as graduation parties and weddings.
“Business is still good, we just kind of flip-flop, instead of having mostly walk-in business, we have mostly event business,” Rocco said. “I’m looking forward to doing the bigger events. I love doing weddings, and I love doing graduation parties because it is fun to get creative with the flavors and toppings.”
Rocco is excited to try a few new flavors for summer that incorporate fruit and is also looking forward to participating in Pride events during June.
“We are really excited to participate in a few events in June for Pride,” Rocco said. “Last year we did the Rainbow Walk and we are working with a few other downtown businesses to put together more events for pride.”
The summer months are a fun time at Rocco’s Cupcake Café, and in order to make the business run smoothly, the café has more workers come to help.
“We mix up our staff hours to bring in more staff to help out with those larger orders,” Rocco said. “And we will really hone in on making sure we are baking the appropriate number of cupcakes for the walk-in business because we are really big on not having any waste.”
The summer is an exciting time for businesses downtown to be open.
“Kent is beautiful in the summer,” Rosenberg said. “There is the hike and bike trail downtown and all the activities that are organized, so it’s a great place to be during the summer.”
Adrianna Quinlan is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
