When the time arrives for Uptown coffee shops to offer peppermint-inspired lattes and deck their walls in holiday decor, shop owners begin anticipating one of their most profitable seasons: the end of the Fall Semester — final exams week.
Certain Uptown coffee shops will be holding extended hours next week for finals, hoping to reap the financial benefits of students pulling caffeinated all-nighters.
Owners hope that their later hours will gain new customers that would have previously studied on campus.
Donkey Coffee & Espresso, 17 W. Washington St., is preparing to stay open 24 hours from Sunday, Dec. 8 to Wednesday, Dec. 11, making it the only coffee shop in the area willing to stay open 24 hours.
“We’ve been doing this for a bunch of years,” said Ken Jackson, barista at Donkey. “If it’s not benefiting us financially, it’s benefiting us with exposure. Students will stay here all day in their own little world, studying.”
Jackson said Donkey’s refillable coffee option is most popular during finals, and that their seasonal holiday drinks help give them an extra financial boost before most of their student clientele head back home after finals.
“You can’t make up for that loss in revenue those weeks, but this helps,” Jackson said. “The owners must feel that (finals week sales) are substantial enough to keep doing it.”
Whit’s Frozen Custard, 49 S. Court St., decided against extended hours because more students flock there for frozen drinks — not a caffeine fix.
“We’re half custard, so it’s harder for us to sell,” said Amy Maglosky, Whit’s manager. “Our sales have bounced back up because of finals week, but we don’t see an influx in customers. It’s more of an influx in the coffee we sell.”
Jackson said that despite the increase in coffee Donkey sells, he has yet to see a student experience the negative effects of increased caffeine intake.
“I know I’ve had a caffeine overdose,” Jackson said. “With every good, there’s always a bad.”
Court Street Coffee, 67 S. Court St., will stay open an extra hour from Monday to Thursday next week and close at 9 p.m.
“We tend to have a more steady flow of people,” said Court Street Coffee manager Natalie Hunter. “Sometimes we see people waiting for us at seven to open, and they’ll stay here all day.”
Katie Conlon, a sophomore studying history, spent the night at Donkey last year, due to their extended hours, something employees said isn’t unusual.
“I don’t really know why I slept there; they have refillable coffee and it was cold outside,” Conlon said. “I got a lot of work done.”
Hunter said she considers students flocking to coffee shops a coping mechanism for stress.
“They think if they have more coffee in their system, they’ll learn more,” Hunter said. “Sometimes it’s just a placebo effect.”
eo300813@ohiou.edu
This article appeared in print under the headline "The Finals Fix"
