Spring break is just around the corner and students, as well as businesses, are gearing up for a busy few days leading up to the time off.
MSU students are busy with last-minute shopping, pampering, tanning and working out to make sure they are completely vacation ready, keeping East Lansing businesses busy.
“Normally the year is pretty steady, but the past two weeks we have been over-slammed,” Christian Graham, a stylist at Great Clips on M.A.C. Avenue said. “We didn’t expect this. It seems like everyone wants to get their hair cut before they go on spring break to see their parents, go on vacation, whatever the case may be.”
Graham said the most popular style for boys right now is the going to the beach surfer boy look.
Graham also said it is no coincidence this is the most popular style this time of year.
East Lansing Threads owner Cory Quinn said business is currently “busy” and “good.”
“There’s that buzz of people looking for spring break stuff,” he said. “It’s that switch from the winter into the summer, which brings brighter colors and more spring clothing.”
Taylor Phillips is a sales associate at the Pitaya on Grand River Avenue and said as spring break approaches, the store gets busier.
“A lot of people have been coming by and buying tank tops and dresses and sunglasses and everything,” she said.
For students, the spring break slam is a normal seasonal occurrence.
“I am not surprised at all that East Lansing businesses have had more active customers before spring break,” kinesiology junior Felicia Baldassare said. “Me and my friends, we go to the gym way more actively than throughout the rest of the year as well as bikini shopping and clothes shopping for spring break.”
Political science sophomore Sydney Slyfield also shared Baldassare’s sentiments of spring break preparation, though her plans focus more on tanning than on working out.
“I started tanning three times a week right before spring break,” Slyfield said. “I’m going to New York, but when I come back everyone else will be tan from going to warm places, so then I want to be tan, too. I went shopping for outfits for my vacation at Pitaya.”
The local gyms might be the busiest places of all, with students wanting to make sure they are completely bathing suit ready.
Planet Fitness in Okemos offers a workout facility for its members as well as tanning.
“(Business has) skyrocketed, especially with the college kids getting ready for spring break,” said David Garver, assistant manager of the Okemos Planet Fitness. “As they get ready for spring break, our tanning and our gym will start to pick up more.”
