At the beginning of each school year, thousands of new faces walk the Penn State campus, and with just as much certainty, a variety of new food vendors are expected to open up shop in downtown State College each year.

To wit: Campus Carnival and Wings on East Beaver Avenue and Philly Pretzel Factory on Allen Street, to name just two.

In the same way that there can only be room for incoming freshmen after the graduating seniors have cleared out, these new businesses can often only come in after a failed predecessor has moved away.

The key to lasting as a business, especially in State College, is standing out, economics professor Russell Chuderewicz said.

"If you're going to offer something someone else is offering, it's going to be impossible to establish any roots," he said.

And roots, Chuderewicz said, are important.

"There's certain places that stand the test of time from one generation to the next," he said. "Unless you have those deep roots in the State College tradition, you're susceptible to the transient crowd that comes in and out."

Campus Carnival and Wings, 433 E. Beaver Ave., opened in the beginning of September in the space formerly occupied by Wing Zone. While both places specialize in chicken wings, the new occupant has a menu and a business plan that differs greatly from its deep-fried forerunner.

In addition to wings, Campus Carnival also offers fried Oreos, funnel cakes, corn dogs, real lemonade and real French fries. Owner Mike Kondash said his store's distinct menu would help it survive.

"There's nowhere else in State College to get carnival food," Kondash, 29, said. "I have no idea why there is a restaurant that would use fake, frozen French fries when it's so simple to just cut a potato and fry it, and it's the best thing in the world."

Kondash said there was more to the carnival gimmick than just the food, too. He has a ring toss game set up in a corner of the store and likes to play games with customers that range from spinning a wheel to flipping a coin. The winners often get free food.

"There's a carnival in town," he said. "It's completely different from any other restaurant."

Though some businesses fail in downtown State College, all obviously aspire to last, and there are more than a few models of businesses that have managed to plant roots.

The Waffle Shop, for example, has been in State College for roughly 35 years. After moving from its location on North Atherton Street, the restaurant on 364 E. College Ave., has operated continuously and is the longest standing of the four Waffle Shops in the area. There are three in State College and one in Bellefonte.

Greg Kight, who has owned and operated the Shops on East College and in Bellefonte for seven years, said he doesn't have any big secrets for maintaining success. He listed the quality of ingredients, the relatively low price and, most importantly, customer service as keys to sustained prosperity.

"Our customers are number one, no matter what," Kight said.

But not every business has the luxury of decades of tradition.

The Philly Pretzel Factory has roughly 160 locations and has been operating since 1998, but its first State College location, 124 S. Allen St., just opened in July in the spot formerly occupied by Ben & Jerry's. But the store has already seen so much success that it will be opening a second location on East College Avenue in a few weeks, co-owner Jennifer Rosania said.

"We had a lot of students from that part of downtown request it," she said, adding it would only be a kiosk and the full bakery would be at the Allen Street location.

Rosania, who grew up in the pretzel haven of Northeast Philadelphia and even worked in a pretzel store before trying her hand at real estate, said the store has come across some obstacles in its few months of operation but nothing that any normal business wouldn't face. She also said opening in the summer, while the borough was much less populous with so many students gone, made the transition much easier.

But now that the students are back and business is booming, Rosania said she has no doubt the store will be successful and being in State College is a big reason why.

"Everybody in town has been so warm and receptive," she said.