Students said they were disappointed to hear the locally-owned P.J.’s Coffee House in the French House closed early for the semester, and will not re-open until the fall. David Heidke, LSU Dining resident district manager, said the coffee shop already had plans to close for the summer but shut down early because of a lack of business. The shop closed April 4. It had been open since the beginning of the semester. “Typically, they will close in the summer, but they closed a little earlier,” Heidke said. “They were just struggling with sales.” Although many factors like location and other choices for coffee on campus may have attributed to the poor sales, Heidke said it closed because many students did not know it was open. “I don’t think that the word is out there,” Heidke said. “I think what [we really need to do] is get the word out, so more students know about it.” But Heidke said issues around the coffee shop affected its business. With fences surrounding the area near P.J.’s because of construction on East and West Laville, Heidke thinks some students may have been restricted from getting to the shop. Although Heidke said the poor business was discouraging this semester, he hopes to re-open the shop with a clean slate. “We want to give it a real push in August,” Heidke said. Heidke said a tentative plan to draw more business would be to create a competition with Greek organizations. He said the competition would be based on which organization visited the coffee shop the most. He said the winner would receive a portion of the sales to be donated to the nonprofit organization of their choice. Heidke said he plans to focus his attention on the P.J’s in the Student Union until the French House location re-opens in the fall. Brittany Crow, manager of the P.J.’s in the Union, said her goal is to increase its business by 30 percent since the French House location is closed. When she operated both locations, Crow said she had a staff of 28 student workers. Since the other coffee shop closed, Crow said she had to lay off some employees. She said she hopes to rehire them in the fall if they have not found other jobs. Crow said many students are not aware of the French House location, so she has been answering questions constantly. “That’s all I’ve been talking about,” she said. Some students who were frequent customers of the P.J.’s in the French House said they are upset it closed early. Jimmie Baron, chemistry freshman said it is especially inconvenient for the French House location to close right before finals. She said she did not know it was open until recently. “Once I finally found a place I could go study, they shut it down,” Baron said. Morgan Beasley, mass communication freshman, said she was upset that it closed because she went there all the time. “I’m pissed,” Beasley said. “I had a friend who worked at that P.J.’s, and they laid him off.”
—-Contact Ben Bourgeois at [email protected]