Students walk by a closed Couch Cafeteria on Saturday. The cafeteria is closed to save around $250,000 per year.
Food Services’ Weekend Closings Change Students Eating Options
In an effort to save over $250,000 per year, 16 campus dining options close during weekends, including Couch Cafeteria. Therefore students with a university meal plan have fewer options to eat which force them to venture off campus or use their meals at other campus operations.
Couch Cafeteria is closed from 2 p.m. Friday until the dinner meal at 5 p.m. Sunday. The decision to operate with these hours is a reflection of the customer traffic on campus during that time, according to Food Service Director Chuck Weaver.
There is an exodus that occurs around 3 p.m. every Friday afternoon and there are simply not enough people on campus to justify or efficiently operate a facility the size of Couch.
On April 10, 2009, Kitchen Comments Issue 633 informed students why Couch is closed on weekends. Former Food Services Director and current Housing and Food Services Director Dave Annis explained when Couch was open all weekend there weren’t many customers from Friday night until Sunday afternoon.
Other operations – Burger King, Cate Center and Crossroads – could handle the volume, except Sunday night, when students returned to campus.
Couch is labor intensive and by shutting it down for six meals, food services saved 14 FTE’s, which is around $250,000. However, to even out the eating options, food services agreed to extend Cate’s closing time from 10 p.m. to midnight.
Food services also broadened meal card use around campus. Currently, any operation south of Lindsey St. has meal exchange compatibilities. Crossroads is also in the process of becoming a 24-7 meal exchange service.
But customer service is food services' top priority, according to Weaver. They are always in planning stages of new commodities.
Introduced last year, room service from Cate ala Carte was added as a convenience for students living in residence halls or OU Traditions Square. The room service is available everyday of the week, and is considered another weekend eating option for students.
Weaver still believes there are plenty of eating options on the weekends.
“The customers that are available to us on the weekends do go to our other operations on campus but even those days are slower than weekday traffic,” Weaver said.
And there’s a reason for slower weekend traffic.
There are currently 22 dining locations on campus, according to the universities housing and food website. However, only six of these dining options are full open on the weekends: Burger King, Crossroads, O’Henry’s, Oliver’s, Taco Mayo, and Xcetera.
So if students aren’t eating campus operations, they are commuting to off campus restaurants.
And with Lindsey St. running east and west through campus, many restaurants understand that locating on Lindsey St. will boost sales.
Lucky Star is a popular off campus food destination on Lindsey St. and they see a higher volume of business on weekends, compared to weekdays, according to employee Sanny Lee. Lee believes the jump in weekend sales has something to do with campus operations being closed for the weekend.
Lee also said that around 30 percent of their weekend business is students, compared to about 10 percent students during weekdays.
Lucky Star wants students to feel comfortable, so they recently added a big screen television so students can watch weekend football.
But Lucky Star isn’t the only restaurant feeling the wave of weekend business; Ray’s Smokehouse BBQ has become a big addition to Lindsey St. dining.
Darrol Ray, co-owner of Ray’s Smokehouse BBQ, says that while both weekends and weekdays are strong, Friday through Sunday seem to bring in the most business. Ray also said that game day’s bring forth many customers with all the Lindsey St. traffic.
Ray added that around 30 percent of weekend business is students, while weekdays are around the 20 percent range.
“I would think that some of the closed campus eating options are a reason for students eating [at Ray’s Smokehouse BBQ] on the weekends,” Ray said. “Right now we’re trying to get a spot in the food court next year. That’s just wishful thinking though”.
Ray said his restaurant is targeting the student demographic; one way was adding two big screen televisions for weekend football viewing use.
In another attempt to higher student sales, Ray’s Smokehouse BBQ added two student coupons in the “Campus Special” discount book.
Money is the main factor for both food services and students in weekend eating options. For food services, the 16 closings level out meal plan prices so there’s not a steep climb in prices.
“With the resources we have I think that to keep Couch open for those 6 additional meals would be a very expensive service and very few would benefit from the service,” Weaver said.
However some students say they don’t have the income or parental monetary support to eat off campus on the weekends.
“Working is not an option for me as a full-time student,” freshman Will McWhirter said. “So it’s Cate or [Burger King] for me”.
McWhirter also said he understands that some people leave for home or work on the weekends, but it’s an inconvenience for him that the cafeteria is closed.
“The [cafeteria] is where I spend most of my meals,” McWhirter said. “On the weekends, without class, students are more likely to leave Norman. Personally I stay here all weekend, every weekend; so the closed cafeteria is like a nightmare. I don’t even like Burger King”.
Student groups can and do use Couch for programming during those shut down hours for specific purposes so Couch is somewhat open on the weekends for those groups.
There aren’t plans to fully reopen Couch Cafeteria, or the other operations, on the weekends in the near future.
In an effort to save over $250,000 per year, 16 campus dining options close during weekends, including Couch Cafeteria. Therefore students with a university meal plan have fewer options to eat which force them to venture off campus or use their meals at other campus operations.
Couch Cafeteria is closed from 2 p.m. Friday until the dinner meal at 5 p.m. Sunday. The decision to operate with these hours is a reflection of the customer traffic on campus during that time, according to Food Service Director Chuck Weaver.
There is an exodus that occurs around 3 p.m. every Friday afternoon and there are simply not enough people on campus to justify or efficiently operate a facility the size of Couch.
On April 10, 2009, Kitchen Comments Issue 633 informed students why Couch is closed on weekends. Former Food Services Director and current Housing and Food Services Director Dave Annis explained when Couch was open all weekend there weren’t many customers from Friday night until Sunday afternoon.
Other operations – Burger King, Cate Center and Crossroads – could handle the volume, except Sunday night, when students returned to campus.
Couch is labor intensive and by shutting it down for six meals, food services saved 14 FTE’s, which is around $250,000. However, to even out the eating options, food services agreed to extend Cate’s closing time from 10 p.m. to midnight.
Food services also broadened meal card use around campus. Currently, any operation south of Lindsey St. has meal exchange compatibilities. Crossroads is also in the process of becoming a 24-7 meal exchange service.
But customer service is food services' top priority, according to Weaver. They are always in planning stages of new commodities.
Introduced last year, room service from Cate ala Carte was added as a convenience for students living in residence halls or OU Traditions Square. The room service is available everyday of the week, and is considered another weekend eating option for students.
Weaver still believes there are plenty of eating options on the weekends.
“The customers that are available to us on the weekends do go to our other operations on campus but even those days are slower than weekday traffic,” Weaver said.
And there’s a reason for slower weekend traffic.
There are currently 22 dining locations on campus, according to the universities housing and food website. However, only six of these dining options are full open on the weekends: Burger King, Crossroads, O’Henry’s, Oliver’s, Taco Mayo, and Xcetera.
So if students aren’t eating campus operations, they are commuting to off campus restaurants.
And with Lindsey St. running east and west through campus, many restaurants understand that locating on Lindsey St. will boost sales.
Lucky Star is a popular off campus food destination on Lindsey St. and they see a higher volume of business on weekends, compared to weekdays, according to employee Sanny Lee. Lee believes the jump in weekend sales has something to do with campus operations being closed for the weekend.
Lee also said that around 30 percent of their weekend business is students, compared to about 10 percent students during weekdays.
Lucky Star wants students to feel comfortable, so they recently added a big screen television so students can watch weekend football.
But Lucky Star isn’t the only restaurant feeling the wave of weekend business; Ray’s Smokehouse BBQ has become a big addition to Lindsey St. dining.
Darrol Ray, co-owner of Ray’s Smokehouse BBQ, says that while both weekends and weekdays are strong, Friday through Sunday seem to bring in the most business. Ray also said that game day’s bring forth many customers with all the Lindsey St. traffic.
Ray added that around 30 percent of weekend business is students, while weekdays are around the 20 percent range.
“I would think that some of the closed campus eating options are a reason for students eating [at Ray’s Smokehouse BBQ] on the weekends,” Ray said. “Right now we’re trying to get a spot in the food court next year. That’s just wishful thinking though”.
Ray said his restaurant is targeting the student demographic; one way was adding two big screen televisions for weekend football viewing use.
In another attempt to higher student sales, Ray’s Smokehouse BBQ added two student coupons in the “Campus Special” discount book.
Money is the main factor for both food services and students in weekend eating options. For food services, the 16 closings level out meal plan prices so there’s not a steep climb in prices.
“With the resources we have I think that to keep Couch open for those 6 additional meals would be a very expensive service and very few would benefit from the service,” Weaver said.
However some students say they don’t have the income or parental monetary support to eat off campus on the weekends.
“Working is not an option for me as a full-time student,” freshman Will McWhirter said. “So it’s Cate or [Burger King] for me”.
McWhirter also said he understands that some people leave for home or work on the weekends, but it’s an inconvenience for him that the cafeteria is closed.
“The [cafeteria] is where I spend most of my meals,” McWhirter said. “On the weekends, without class, students are more likely to leave Norman. Personally I stay here all weekend, every weekend; so the closed cafeteria is like a nightmare. I don’t even like Burger King”.
Student groups can and do use Couch for programming during those shut down hours for specific purposes so Couch is somewhat open on the weekends for those groups.
There aren’t plans to fully reopen Couch Cafeteria, or the other operations, on the weekends in the near future.
Check out the slideshow of campus operations:
Check out the video of a student's opinion concerning the closed cafeteria:
Check out the audio of Food Services Marketing and Public Relations Specialist Lauren Royston:
No comments:
Post a Comment