T.I.S. offers free T-shirts to incoming freshmen

When IU’s fall semester begins in late August, the aisles of T.I.S. College Bookstore will be jam-packed with new and returning students hunting for textbooks and supplies. Fortunately for T.I.S., the mass exodus of students following the spring semester’s conclusion provides more than three months to prepare for the fall rush.\nWith fewer than 10,000 students taking classes during each of the two summer sessions, T.I.S. Store Manager Greg Lloyd said the store experiences much less traffic and fewer textbook sales in the summer than during the school year. \nDespite the drop in customers, Lloyd said the store’s textbook staff grows in the summer as the store readies itself for the August influx of students.\n“The numbers aren’t here, but we’re pretty busy trying to prepare for the fall semester,” Lloyd said. “When you have 37,000 students coming in to buy their books in a one-week period, it’s a big rush.”\nLloyd said the months of preparation will likely end around the week of Aug. 13, when he expects the store’s traffic to increase. \n“A lot of the kids who have August and July leases come in during that time and come in and get their books early and can get the cream of the crop, as far as used books go,” Lloyd said. \nThe week before classes becomes especially busy, Lloyd said, as the rest of the students return to Bloomington. Many students, though, wait until the last possible moment to buy their textbooks, keeping the store busy well into the semester.\nWhile T.I.S. prepares for the fall, the store is also attempting to brace incoming freshmen and their parents attending orientation. Lloyd says having the orientation crowd in town is good for the store.\n“(Orientation) does bring us traffic we don’t necessarily get during the school year because a lot of the parents are here,” Lloyd said. \nAssistant Manager Melanie Griffith said parents come into the store with a variety of questions concerning anything from textbooks to Bloomington restaurants. Lloyd echoed Griffith’s sentiments. \n“Parents are typically trying to acclimate their kids to where they need to go, familiarizing them a little bit with the city,” Lloyd said.\nT.I.S. is offering free T-shirts to incoming freshmen and their parents, drawing orientation attendees to the store and introducing them to what it has to offer. Lloyd said that many of the freshmen attending Orientation are coming into the store and reserving books for the fall. However, some freshmen coming through the store are not yet concerned about textbooks.\nIncoming freshman Abby Sliwa said she was more interested Tuesday in the free T-shirt and IU merchandise that T.I.S. has to offer. This is not unusual, as Lloyd says T.I.S. sells more sportswear than anything else during the summer.