College move-in week impacts local businesses

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — With the first day of class right around the corner, university students are returning to Springfield. College move-in week brings students and their families in from out of town, impacting local businesses for years. 

"Tonight, we're really busy," said Jared Presley, the general manager at Coyote's Adobe Cafe in Springfield. "We've got the Chiefs coming on tonight at 9:00. But even before the Chiefs game, all the college students and their families coming back."

Presley told Ozarks First college students and their families return to restaurants around town out of tradition. After 33 years of operation, Presley said lots of their regulars are now parents and have since returned to coyotes with their college-aged children.

"A majority of the people that used to come here are our regulars," said Presley. "You start seeing their kids come and they start turning into regulars and then they bring their friends, and then over the course of the years, you see different generations."

Local restaurants such as Civil Kitchen, Black Sheep Burgers and Shakes and Gailey's Breakfast Cafe are also hot-spots for college weeks like these.

Presley said football season always draws in more business, but college students and their families have filled the restaurant all day as well.

"Every year around this season, our sales just start taking off and it's mostly football and college all coming back," said Presley.