Small businesses in college towns struggle without students

Also, just really sad because it shows the impact that all of this has had on something that’s so central and personal to so many students.” About two blocks down, a sports bar and a nightclub that Porikos owns are at least temporarily shuttered due to an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because alcohol accounts for at least 70% of their gross receipts.Others who own businesses on or near the three-block stretch known as South U are praying they can hang on long enough to still be standing whenever it becomes business as usual again.“This is going to be an unprecedented time that we’re entering into to see if this street can survive,” said Justin Herrick, the co-owner of Good Time Charley’s, a neighborhood staple since the late 1970s.When the pandemic sent many of the school’s 40,000-plus students back to all parts of the globe earlier this year, the center of the college town’s small-business district became eerily quiet.“It was like a three-foot blizzard without snow,” recalled Richard Schubach, who owns Replenish, a small grocery store across the street from campus, on the ground floor of a high-end apartment complex that caters to students.Whitmer lifted Michigan’s stay-at-home order after more than two months in early June, letting restaurants reopen for dine-in customers with capacity limits.While The Brown Jug and Porikos’ Backroom Pizza have been open and are expected to survive, the doors at the nearby Blue Leprechaun and Study Hall Lounge that he also owns may stay closed for good.“If I don’t have higher capacity, I cannot make it,” the 62-year-old Porikos said between drags of a cigarette. He was uninterrupted by business over the next hour at his bar and restaurant, which has been a go-to destination for University of Michigan students since 1936.“It’s going to take a long time to recover from my losses,” he said softly.As the summer wore on, many business owners across the U.S. didn’t even know what to brace for as colleges considered whether to hold in-person classes or make all learning remote.