Lane Tech students’ relationships with businesses can be described as a rocky one, with disruptiveness being pointed out on both sides, while some businesses enjoy student company.
A popular spot for Lane students’ lunch is Mariano’s on Western. According to Ellen, an employee at Mariano’s, students tend to act “obnoxious.” “They just hoot holler with each other through the aisles,” Ellen said, describing the store as a “playground” for the groups of students.
In fact, Ellen described a policy instilled by Mariano’s which permits only one student per register due to large crowds. “If you guys come in with like five friends at a time, we just ask that the rest of them wait outside,” Ellen said.
Large groups don’t seem unique to Mariano’s, as students crowd in other restaurants— notably so during Friday night football games in the fall. “In the [Wendy’s] parking lot, there be hundreds of them over there,” said Marcia, a manager at the Wendy’s on Western.
Marcia described how police are often called to Wendy’s on football nights, as students are “just acting crazy.” She said that the consistent behavior may cause her to close down during that time completely. “Maybe I have to start closing the door, and that’s making me lose business,” Marcia said. The students at football games are a mix of Lane students, as well as whatever other school is playing against Lane.
The constant turmoil that students and these businesses have can lead to extreme measures, such as in sophomore student Skylar Walter’s case of being kicked out of the Popeyes on Addison and Western among most other students there. Walter said a student was filling his water bottle with soda that needed to be paid for at the Popeyes Fountain Machine. This opened up other unresolved issues, displayed when “The worker started yelling at [students] that they were getting complaints from customers, and that [students] couldn’t eat outside food in Popeyes anymore,” Walter said, “And she kicked us out.”
Walter said that she thought being kicked out was “unnecessary.” “I feel like the worker could have done something other than yelling at us, and completely kicking us out of the restaurant,” Walter said. According to her, businesses shouldn’t be throwing them out. “I think that students are pretty good for business around here, because they are the customers mainly,” Walter said.
Sarah, a Popeyes employee, has a different take. She said that students regularly bring in food from other restaurants during lunch periods, in turn leading to the loss of business “You would think that we would gain more [business] because of the students, but they always like to bring the pizza, or they just bring, like, the Wendy’s food, and don’t actually buy anything,” Sarah said.
In addition to bringing in outside food, most students “will leave their food here for [workers] to clean and throw away,” Sarah said. “I say for the kids that are actually eating here, I feel like [the students bringing in food] interrupts them, and kind of ruins it for everybody else.” Not only do students act “rebellious” on the regular, according to Sarah, sometimes they can be downright mean. She recalled that “there were students banging on the door,” and “being very rude” one day a little bit before opening at 10 o’clock. “Verbatim, they would be like ‘oh, it’s always that same ugly **** that never wants to open the doors at 10:00’.”
Despite atrocious behavior demonstrated by some students, many students provide a positive atmosphere for businesses. Samantha Hardace, a manager at Dave’s Hot Chicken on Western estimated about 45% of students coming in for lunch make purchases, though despite the percentage being relatively low, Hardace “loves that [students] come in and support our business, as well over a lot of these businesses on the strip.”
“I think it’s a little bit easier to flow with the students,” Hardace said. “Sometimes they want to be silly and showcase their personalities,” Hardace said, describing how she has many opportunities to “connect” with students throughout the school day.
Similarly, Ashley, an employee at the Circle-K convenience store, said she typically gets lots of business activities throughout the school week. Due to all the foot-traffic, A Circle-K policy for all customers entails leaving their bag in the front of the store, though this policy wasn’t specifically towards students. “Not just students, but a lot of customers have the opportunity to steal,”
In fact, Ashley enjoys student company throughout the day. “[When] there’s no school, I actually be missing students,” she said. According to her, their company makes the day go faster. “I actually like having my students in here,” she said.
