Mercer Village business changes again
Mercer Village is a place where students can get away from their studies. It offers a variety of restaurants such as Margarita’s, Jittery Joes, Francar’s, Fountain of Juice and Ingleside Village Pizza. These businesses have seen success because they offer what students want most: food. Now try to think of the other businesses in the Village. The bookstore is the pillar, with the tanning salon and spa being afterthoughts. They do not seem to fit within the theme of a college village. Their services are not in over demand.
My freshman year there was a bike store located where the William and Alexander Salon and Spa currently is. The store did not do well, and was taken over by Rodeo Beach. After some time the bike portion of the store was removed and not long after Rodeo Beach closed down. I believe this happened because the store did not offer what the majority of the Mercer student body wanted. Yes, it was a cool store and had some good items in stock, but nothing that the student body really wanted. Another reason I believe they failed is because most students do not have a disposable income to dedicate to anything besides food or school related supplies.The reason the restaurants do so well in the Village is because they offer affordable food for Mercer students and local residents. But primarily their customers are based at the college.
These students crave for a change from what they can easily get in the cafeteria or the UC. The restaurants offer inexpensive food or drink over most of the day and at a good price. They serve as a hang out spot, a meeting point, study area, and a place to escape. The idea of having a Spa or tanning salon may look good on paper, but how often will they have patrons?
Most Mercer students would just go home to do their shopping, tanning, or visit a salon. The idea of having a spa after a rough test is tempting, but who has the time or money? Instead, Mercer Village should have done a poll on what type of business should have taken over Rodeo Beach’s lot.
Personally, I wanted a frozen yogurt shop. A frozen yogurt shop would have instantly benefited from the patronage of the student body but also the surrounding schools. Local frozen yogurt places, such as Tutti Frutti and La Berry, are only 15-20 minutes away but still completely inaccessible to those without a car. Having a business such as that in the Village would be much better suited than a spa. There could have been a few extra jobs for some students with the opening of a frozen yogurt shop.
The spa does not offer that, only trained employees have the option to work there. Because who wants to get their haircut by the person you sat next to in FYS? Overall I do not see the spa lasting long and I am frankly surprised the tanning salon is still open. The services they offer are nice, but just not what I believe the student body wants. Perhaps there was little Mercer could do to influence what shop ended up there, and I am sure they do not wish to hold onto an empty space for long.
But out of anything that could have gone there, a spa? Only time will truly tell if the spa has a real place in the Village or whether or not it too will collapse as its predecessors did.
Here’s some food for thought… Mercer Village was created as a response to a community driven initiative to revitalize the neighborhood around Mercer. An extensive research process involving Mercer students AND members of the general public resulted in Mercer Village as we know it. While Mercer students probably benefit the most from the offerings in Mercer Village, it was not built for them specifically, it was built for all of College Hill and really all of Macon.
No business would ever go into Mercer Village without careful consideration. When you say “Most Mercer students would just go home to do their shopping, tanning, or visit a salon.” That’s exactly the point! The people who helped create Mercer Village don’t want students to have a reason to go home. They want them to stay and spend their money in Macon and enjoy everything this town has to offer.
Now for some economics… The business owners in Mercer Village probably make a significant portion of their income from Mercer students. Those students are gone for over 4 months a year if you add up all of the holidays, the longest block being summer. Summer is also the peak sales season for ice cream and yogurt. That’s not really an intelligent business model. Now think about the term market saturation. People (Mercer students included) spend a finite amount of money on food. So providing yet another place to spend food dollars would dilute the amount that is spent in Mercer Village even further making it more difficult for each business to thrive. Whether intentionally or subconsciously, the money that people spend on services and products is separate from the money that they spend on food. I would imagine those making the decisions about what businesses go in Mercer Village are trying to tap into the services/products segment to provide a more diversified market.
Lastly, it should be known that Rodeo Beach didn’t “close down.” They moved to a location with more storage and less retail floor space on Vineville Ave. since their primary source of revenue is online sales.
I understand why the Village was created, and I do not doubt its achievements.
If students have a limited budget for food then they certainly have a limited budget for other things. I can understand that the Village wants people to spend money there, but not many students have that money on them.
Also, I know that I routinely go get frozen yogurt regardless of temperature. While they may not have the same peak sales in other times of the year, I completely believe they would have constant customers. Tutti Frutti and La Berry are prime examples, regardless of what the weather is like there is always a stream of people.
Even if Rodeo Beach did not necessarily close down, they realized that the location they were in was not suitable for them. I think the same thing will happen to the Spa.
I’ve actually never met a Mercer student that works in Mercer Village since my family moved to the corridor over a year ago. Do to the academic demands of such a university, j haent met many students who have jobs at all unless it benefits thier field of study. My husband and I actually have been clients of William Alexander for almost two years now and were thrilled that such an established business was going to be part of Mercer Village. The salon (which has been one of the most upscale salons in Macon since 2009) will pump revenue into the village and vice versa. Win win.
I know for a fact that Jittery Joes, Ingleside, Margarita’s, and the Bookstore all have student employees. Also, I would do anything to get a job. I know of many other students who feel the same exact way, but cannot get a job on campus because of work study limitations and the inability to get a job off-campus.
I’m glad to see that the business has local customers and wish the company the best.
Mr. Ellis, I recommend that in the future you provide quotes from sources as opposed to citing blanket ideas as “facts”. While an opinion piece is just that, an opinion, it should still be substantiated by facts. Rather than getting in to a he said she said at this particular juncture, I will be reaching out to my contacts at Rodeo Beach, William Alexander Salon, and College Hill Corridor to provide a thorough rebuttal for what was an opinion piece lacking in depth.