Local businesses near the LSU campus that depend heavily on students and faculty to keep the doors open are bracing for a steep drop off in activity now that LSU has announced it will discontinue in-person classes and transition to online learning after today.
“We understand, of course, why they had to do it but we’re very concerned about closing the classes and students going home,” says Matherne’s owner Ernie Matherne, who estimates 50% of revenues at Matherne’s Market at LSU comes from students and faculty. “It’s quite alarming to us, to put it mildly.”
As the ripple effect from closures and cancellations related to the coronavirus begins to spread throughout the community, small businesses are particularly vulnerable. Merchants near LSU face an additional challenge: They rely on a robust spring season to carry them through what is always a slow summer.
“Under normal circumstances, we expect to have to deal with the challenge of business slowing down considerably during spring break and then following the end of the semester for the summer months,” says Highland Coffees owner Clarke Cadzow, who advocates for businesses near the North Gates of campus. “Now, the student population will be gone for nearly an additional two months. This will indeed test the businesses in our neighborhood.”
Along with the decline in walk-in business, retailers like Matherne’s, the anchor tenant in the new LSU Nicholson Gateway development, have also seen their catering business dry up, literally, overnight.
“We’ve had tons of orders canceled,” Matherne says. “Basically, anything having to do with a crowd is dead.”
On the bright side, for now at least, businesses are still open, so restaurants, like Zippy’s in the Perkins Road Overpass neighborhood, are hoping to benefit from the closures and cancellations.
“We’re expecting an uptick in business, at least in the short term,” Zippy’s owner Neil Hendricks says. “There’s not going to be anything else to do and people are going to want to go out and socialize still.”
But Hendricks concedes he’s concerned that if the virus spreads as it has say in Italy, the government will impose more restrictive measures on commercial establishments. He’s also worried that this crisis won’t be over by the fall, despite the optimistic assessments of some.
“Football season is six months away,” he says. “Will it be over by then? We don’t know. We’re just going to have to wait and see.”
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