University students a big boost for local business
Posted Sep 8, 2010 05:39:50 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Thousands of post-secondary students have returned to Halifax this week – and that’s good news for downtown businesses, who say they welcome the influx of new customers.
Students in yellow and blue shirts dotted downtown intersections on Tuesday, singing and chanting in hopes of getting donations for the annual Shinearama campaign for cystic fibrosis – and they said they were glad to be back.
“This city’s so historic and beautiful, and when the sun’s out, everything just sparkles,” she said. “Everyone’s energy is just awesome.”
The student representatives said donations were rolling in, but Gordon Stewart of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia says post-secondary students actually give a lot more to local merchants than they take.
“Certainly back to school is good for certain types of restaurants,” he said. “The bars, pubs and clubs will see a sharp increase. They’ll actually go into their best part of the year.”
He says fast food joints and restaurants with lower prices also see a big boost from students.
Bernard Smith with the Spring Garden Road Business Association says it’s already been a bumper year for downtown shops, thanks to record-setting warm weather – and the return of the students is just more good news.
“It means about another 20,000 young people with varying levels of purchasing power, obviously, but it puts a lot of life on the streets,”
A Metro Transit official says the service is also bracing for a big ridership increase.
“The next few weeks will be very busy, and then it should kind of sort itself out,” said spokesperson Lori Patterson. “But we continue to monitor.”
Most of the city’s 30,000 university students now get bus passes as part of their tuition.
