Story by Sophie Brock, Photo by Natalie Demaree, February 24, 2021

Even in the aftermath of the economic disaster that Covid-19 created, small businesses across the country continue to struggle as they attempt to pick up the pieces that were left behind. However, for small businesses in college towns there is hope on the horizon as students begin to return back to campus—that is, if students intentionally support small businesses.

These businesses may be used to the college students being gone for a duration of three months in summer, but last March within hours of the news of the pandemic, college towns everywhere unexpectedly turned into ghost towns leaving many businesses at a sudden loss for a huge portion of their customers.

College students don’t always realize the weight that their dollar has in regards to it being spent at a small business. Especially when small businesses everywhere are attempting to recover. As more students return to campus, they should consider supporting small businesses opposed to the big corporate competitors they have.

As a college student myself, I think it’s easy to forget whilst within the University of Arkansas bubble that we aren’t the only group of people suffering from the pandemic. Our complaints about the lack of in person classes and no large social gatherings are small in comparison to the issues other Americans are facing. Small businesses are still shutting down and as the future of the economy, it’s arguably college students’ duty to help small businesses out as much as they can.

While most college students live on a tight budget that leads them to shopping at chain corporations that offer better prices, there are still other ways they can support small businesses. 

Thanks to social media, college students are the easiest age group to interact with which leads to businesses being able to utilize college students in mutually beneficial relationships, such as free promotion via social media and internships.

PLOMO, a beloved quesadilla shop that acts as a late night hot spot for college students, took an economic hit after the Dickson Street bars began to close and Covid-19 restrictions were put into place. The owner of PLOMO, Omar Kassim, is in awe of how much college students have contributed to business, he said. According to Kassim, college students make up 90% of PLOMO’s faithful customers. Once students got sent home last year, they had to think of a new way to bring in more customers until students came back to campus.

“We started opening during the day time for brunch on the weekends, and we just did whatever we could to attract a different audience and what not, but ultimately it was just staying tight until the students returned,” Kassim said.

PLOMO is one of Omar Kassim’s several small business operations stationed in Fayetteville. He created PLOMO after seeing the surge of quesadilla sales at another one of his popular restaurants, Con Quesos. 

“Everything we do revolves around the customer experience,” Kassim said. “We have a really cool story of when we started out the back door—just slinging quesadillas, and it’s kinda sketchy and we split a door in half and made it a countertop and that was PLOMO. It feels like people are really rooting for us and they want us to succeed, and that’s pretty cool that customers are actually following us and promoting us.” 

Since students are back on campus and bars and restaurants on Dickson Street are open again, PLOMO’s business has picked up to how it was prior to the pandemic. Students have settled back into their routine of going to bars and then rallying at PLOMO afterwards. Without realizing it, a lot of students have been giving PLOMO free advertising via their social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. 

Social media leads any business to have access to a wider cliente base, and something as small as a student snapping a quick selfie with their late night quesadilla can bring PLOMO in an abundance of new customers. Advertising like this especially is good for a business during a time of uncertainty because without the free advertising students provide, any business can spend upward of thousands of dollars on advertising.

“The thing that I’m most proud of is the simplicity of what we do and how much the customer appreciates that,” Kassim said. “People are marketing for us and putting our stickers everywhere and we build this way of thinking of ‘oh we go to bars and then we go to PLOMO.” 

Arsaga’s is an example of another small business that has been positively impacted by the return of the college students. Thanks to their popularity and dedicated customers throughout the years, they have been able to open several locations. Last March however, they resorted to closing their doors and only kept their drive thru location open to compensate for the students suddenly leaving.

Kate Hurlbut-the coffee bar manager at the Arsaga’s Mill District location-explained that the student population makes up a large part of their customer base due to students going to one of their several locations and studying for hours.

“When campus isn’t functioning it definitely changes the atmosphere of the business, and when the students aren’t here it definitely impacts us,” Hurlbut said. 

She even mentioned that there is a notable decline in business over the breaks when the students go home, further emphasizing the impact students have on Arsaga’s.

One Arsaga’s location that had to temporarily close due to the lack of business was the Arsaga’s in the law library located on campus. 

“We can definitely tell when the students aren’t here and the pandemic definitely impacted them not being here, but since they’ve been back we’ve been seeing a lot of studiers and and a lot of students come through,” Hurlbut said.

The Arsaga’s Mill District opened in October, only a few months after the first wave of students came back, and it’s very likely that without the support of the students this location wouldn’t be doing as well as it is. Now, every weekend Arsaga’s is bustling with business as many students opt to eat there. 

While Plomo and Arsaga’s had to think of new ways to bring customers in while the students were gone, other businesses such as Presley Paige shifted their catalog of items being sold to cater to a new audience. 

Their website describes their business as “paper, party, gifts.” Maggie Paige Owens, the owner of Presley Paige, said that when they first opened right before Covid-19, they were mainly focused on selling party goods and gifts. 

Luckily, as small businesses are able to listen more to their customers than their larger corporate competitors, Owens discovered what her customers were wanting at the time. Presley Paige made the inventory shift to more self-care related items such as lotion and journals.

“Covid helped us understand our customers better, and us being in our first year of business some of that would have happened naturally but it definitely expedited the process,” Owens said.

While college students aren’t the main customers for Presley Paige, Owens has taken advantage of the students being back in town and has created a semester long internship program that students can apply for. 

The internship program has been a recent addition to Presley Paige, and has led to more college students interacting with the business. This program benefits both parties as it gives students an insight into the work field while Presley Paige is able to connect with the students.

This program gives college students the ability to see the direct impact they’re having on the small business. A hands on experience can open their eyes to the obstacles many small businesses are still facing and make them realize how much their support can impact them.

“When it relates to students, the best part is working with students to generate buzz and to bring new energy into the business. That’s probably been the most impactful part is having our intern program and being able to work with the interns and get to know them and be more connected to the University,” Owens said.

Ultimately, college students need to continue to support small businesses. We don’t necessarily realize just how much small businesses make up of Fayetteville, and without being supported by students they could very likely disappear.

Supporting small businesses doesn’t always mean spending money at that business. It can be something as small as promoting them on Instagram or not spending money at their large corporation competitor. 

Regardless of what’s going on in the world, it’s important to remind ourselves that supporting small businesses is something that should always be encouraged. 

College students often doubt how big of an impact they can have, but when it comes to supporting small businesses in Fayetteville, many owners would argue that college students are a major group that can ultimately decide the fate of their business.