The decrease in Ames’ population caused by Iowa State not being in session has forced many businesses and services around the city to change their hours.

The second week in May sees many changes for the Ames economy. After the moving out of a large number of ISU students, many businesses notice less sales and traffic.

Barry Engelmann, store manager of American Eagle, 2801 Grand Ave., said his store is no exception. He said college students are the demographic American Eagle looks to for its clothing sales. He said in some larger cities, American Eagle can make due without a local university or private school in the area. Ames, however, sees a very large sales drop without ISU students to shop its store.

“If you want to make more sales, you need more traffic,” Engelmann said.

While some malls are filled with student traffic during the summer, Ames takes on a much smaller customer load. He said American Eagle uses the summer to prepare for August and September, two of its busiest months of the year. Until then, they cut back on employee hours and don’t need to hire a lot more summer workers.

This is true for restaurants as well. Lisa Dunn, associate manager of Perkins, 325 S. Duff Ave., said Perkins is a popular place for college students, and sees a large drop in business during the summer months – especially during its second and third shifts. Because of this, the staff has limited shift hour choices.

Dunn said she has been letting her workers leave early because of a lack of business. She said although a usual schedule per shift at Perkins includes 14 employees during the school year, in the summer it decreases to approximately 10 to 11. Dunn said the late evening shift now only sees one to three waitresses and very little activity from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. She said the usual bar rush found nine months out of the year is now more of an occasional large group of people.

A lot of students during the school year go to Perkins for breakfast or lunch on Sunday. Dunn said she lets a number of employees leave early on Sunday afternoon.

“I let one girl go at noon, and then two left before 2 [p.m.]. It was just too slow,” Dunn said.

Something else affected by a decrease student population in the summer is CyRide. Sheri Kyras, director of transportation, said CyRide is serving only 3,000 people per day during the summer, compared to 21,000 people per day during the school year. They don’t offer Cardinal or Gold routes and drop from 47 buses on the streets at a time to only 25.

High gas prices boost CyRide use. Kyras said they are seeing an increase of 10 percent of Ames workers taking the bus instead of driving.

Kyras also said CyRide workers hope to continue educating the public on how the system works and why it should be used more by students and Ames citizens, hoping to get more people on the bus.

Sheila Lundt, Ames assistant city manager, said the summer does affect a lot of retail stores and restaurants, but she is confident that more students are staying in Ames. She said Ames is looking each year for more expansion, and the city is offering more job opportunities in the technical and public relations fields. Students are able to get internships locally with different Ames businesses.

Lundt also said activities throughout the year stay relatively regular, although those hosted in the summer receive less help from students. The Ames Main Street District hosts a variety of musical activities with “Tune Into Main Street” events every Thursday in efforts to stay hand-in-hand with the ISU community.