Every weekday morning in the summer local bookstore manager Pam Suminski makes sure she has employees standing at the Scramble Light with free giveaways and coupons to their store in the Village.
With most students away from Ball State University in the summer, there are a scarce amount of people around campus, but on campus is the one group Suminski wants to target: incoming freshmen.
For Suminski and the T.I.S. bookstore, the amount of potential new customers during freshmen orientation make this one of the most important times of the year.
"If I was told that my advertising and marketing budget would be slashed, I would take it all and put it toward orientation," she said. "That's how important orientation is. Otherwise, students wouldn't know that we existed."
T.I.S. is one of the bookstores around Ball State that is recruiting for the incoming students' business and giving away free promotional items in hope that students will purchase textbooks from them in the upcoming fall semester.
Ball State Bookstore general manager Ron Sorrel said the bookstore advertises book rentals and electronic books and gives away free T-shirts with every book reservation.
Despite being on campus, Sorrell said, the Ball State Bookstore has to work harder than most people think in order to get business during orientation.
"We are in the middle of campus and summer orientation takes place mostly on the south side of campus near the Student Center," he said. "We do a lot to attract them."
In addition, Suminski said T.I.S. tries to attract freshmen by giving away drawstring backpacks with information about the store and a coupons for free T-shirts. She said many people won't buy merchandize when they redeem their gifts, but giving away free stuff is worth it because students can familiarize themselves with the store
"We'd like [freshmen] to reserve books," she said. "When they come to the store we'll give them their free T-shirt."
Similar to T.I.S., CBX — another bookstore in the Village — traditionally giveS incoming freshmen free T-shirts if they reserve their textbooks with the store. CBX declined to comment when contacted by The Ball State Daily News.
Freshman Raeanne Schlotterbeck said she decided to redeem her free T-shirts after she received a backpack from T.I.S. Schlotterbeck was surprised she would receive free clothing from bookstores on and around campus.
"I think it's a good idea," she said. "I figured I would maybe get stuff like pencils."
Schlotterbeck said she was taking her schedule to reserve books at all the bookstores so she could get several freebies.
"It is a good chance to check out all the bookstores," she said. "I'm sure I'll end up using all of them at some point."
Her mother, Norene Schlotterbeck, said she used to go to Ball State University and that it was interesting to see the variety of options.
"There really needs to be more than one option to get books," she said. "The Village used to be all bars and restaurants. I'd rather see things that benefit students like bookstores."
Along with hoping for future sales, Sorrell said orientation is important to their store's sales during the slow summers. He also said incoming freshman and their parents mostly buy gifts and Ball State printed items like T-shirts and sweatshirts.
"Orientation is crucial for the summer sale," Sorrell said. "It's the bulk of our actual sales in June and the first part of July."
Suminski also said orientation helps increase its revenue during the summer, but that is not their main focus with the incoming students.
"It helps us with sales in the summer months, but our primary purpose is to educate [freshmen] for other opportunities to purchase their textbooks in the fall," she said.
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