WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9
BUSINESS
Kansas Union continues rapid expansion
By Richard Gintowt
rgintowt@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
This year, for the first time ever, students could get a haircut, buy a cell phone and schedule their spring break trip in the Kansas Union. Next fall, they'll also be able to buy Birkenstocks.
Footprints, 1339 Massachusetts St., a local footwear retailer, will open a satellite store in the Union this fall. Owner Mick Ranney signed a three-year lease June 20 after Pat Beard, director of Building Services, put out an offer to more than 50 local businesses.
"We had tapped our creativity and kind of threw it open," Beard said. "We're not doing it to make a lot of money as much as to provide a service."
The store, which will be located on the third floor of the Union between Great Clips and T-Mobile, will serve as an outlet shop for Footprints' downtown location. 1339 Massachusetts St.
Footprints' arrival in the Union follows on the heels of three businesses Great Clips, STA Travel and T-Mobile — that
opened shop within the last year. The influx of business reflects a landmark effort from Union directors to offer more services within the Union and increase student traffic.
Students should also have more dining options in the fall. The Union is accepting submissions from local restaurants to take over the Prairie Cafe, located on the third floor, and a coffee and snack bar in the first floor Hawk's Nest.
If past ventures are any indication, the success of these ventures should not be taken for granted.
Upperclassmen may recall the end of Mailboxes Etc.'s two-year tenure in the Union in December 2001. Beard had solicited the business' presence after the Union's 10-year-old postal station closed because of postal service cutbacks.
The gamble did not pay off. Mailboxes Etc. never generated a profit and turned the business over to the Union after six months.
Beard said the Memorial Corporation lost about $30,000 on the venture.
— Edited by Maggie Newcomer
Addie Cullen, Tonganoxie resident, gives Thomas Andersen, Copenhagen, Denmark, graduate student, a trim at Great Clips in the Kansas Union. Cullen said business had been slow over the summer but she expected to be busy in the fall.
Zach Straus/Kansan