April 8, 2011

By Tony Puricelli

Since the completion of the MU Student Center earlier this semester, Campus Dining Services has observed an increase in sales from its dining locations in the center.

CDS Retail Operations Manager Alan Petersen said sales in the student center are 25 to 50 percent higher than food sales in the old Brady Commons food court on any given weekday.

According to a CDS report, the student center locations grossed $76,604 the first week of March compared to $56,851 the first week of October in the fall.

The highest grossing restaurant is Sunshine Sushi, due in part to the expense of its cuisine.

Since its opening in January, Mort’s is up 60 percent in sales per day. Part of this increase might pertain to the atmosphere of The Shack, which includes pool tables and large-screen projectors for viewing sporting events.

“While Mort’s has done very well, we’ve not seen any large decreases in traffic to other restaurants, so that is a pretty good indicator of increased building traffic as well,” CDS spokesman Andrew Lough said.

Petersen said Kate and Emma’s has also seen a major increase, nearly 50 percent, in sales since August. Overall, the Student Center makes between 3,000 and 3,500 transactions per day.

Those transactions come from an average 15,000 students who enter the building each day, according to Student Auxiliary Services spokeswoman Michelle Froese. Although tracking data was not kept with the old Brady Commons, Froese said it is believed the old student center saw only around 10,000 students per day.

Weekend food sales are up by as much as 1,000 percent on weekends compared to last semester.

“Saturdays and Sundays have been a major, major improvement, and I think that’s just because it’s a better building,” Petersen said.

Petersen said weekend business used to be a loss leader —- Brady Commons food court was open for a service to encourage more shoppers at the University Bookstore. The dining establishments lost money from remaining open on the weekends. Now, weekend sales at least break even if not making a few dollars.

Petersen said CDS is working to improve its speed of service to handle the increase in business this semester.

“We still have a long way to go, but the more customers that we can put through the line at lunch, the more people will come,” Petersen said.

Adjustments to the hours and menus of the restaurants are examined each semester. Because of high sales on weekends, the food court has moved its closing time from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Petersen said it is likely Mort’s will remain open longer during the weekends this fall to allow viewing parties for each weekend’s football games.

“We look at what we can do, what we can add to fill the gaps,” Petersen said. “Any improvements that we can make, we try and do.”

Current figures suggest that between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., the student center hosts one to two thousand people.

“That was unheard of, so this is really exciting,” Froese said. “It just shows we have more places for students to be on campus.”

Traffic in the student center was not tracked during the fall semester. However, Froese said she does not believe it was as high in large part because the building was not yet completely open, with popular destinations like The Shack unavailable to students.

“We’ve become part of the traffic pattern again,” Peterson said. “Last semester, a lot of people might walk around the building due to construction. Now, they’re walking through the building and seeing what we have to offer.”