Updated Aug. 11.
College of William & Mary students dining at Tribe Square restaurants soon will not have to pull out cash or a credit card to pay.
Three businesses housed in the bottom floor of the hall – Pita Pit, The Crust and MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes – have finalized contracts this week to be incorporated into the school meal plan for the fall.
Students will be able to use Dining Dollars to pay for meals at those establishments.
Dining Dollars, which used to be known as flex points in the school community, are included in school meal plans and can be used by students to make tax-free food purchases on and off campus at participating locations. Students can choose from a range of meal plans, but all include a combination of Dining Dollars and meal swipes to be used at William & Mary’s all-you-can-eat locations.
The decision to include Tribe Square comes after months of negotiations between the businesses and Sodexo Inc., the college’s new dining provider. William & Mary announced in February that Sodexo would be taking over for Aramark this summer, which prompted Tribe Square businesses to attempt negotiations for subcontracts with the new food vendor.
Late last year, restaurant owners in Tribe Square, which opened for the 2011-12 school year with the three restaurants and the now-closed Subway, expressed frustration with the school’s mandatory meal plan for all students living on campus, that began on a rolling basis in fall 2011. Previously only freshmen – already required to live on campus – were required to purchase a meal plan.
Representatives from all four eateries said business was struggling and pointed to the mandatory meal plan as the reason, claiming students now had no need to go off-campus for food.
Alpen Patel, owner of MOOYAH, said joining meal plan on Dining Dollars, while a step in the right direction, is a disappointment.
“I’m not satisfied because my main goal was to get on the meal swipes, so there is a little dissatisfaction in my mouth,” he said. “You play with the hand you’re dealt.”
While Dining Dollars give students the option to use a meal plan outside of the two main dining halls on campus – Center Court at the Sadler Center and the Commons – Patel worries too many businesses have signed on and competition will be stiff.
In addition to the three Tribe Square restaurants, students can use Dining Dollars at Domino’s Pizza, a Qdoba housed in the Sadler Center, the food court-style Marketplace, numerous convenience store locations, as well as an Aromas replacing Greenberrys in Swem Library, a food truck and the restaurant 1693 BBQ.
“We’re fighting nine different establishments to help a raise in sales with the flex dollars. With the meal swipes, it’s just a bigger pool of money that’s available,” Patel said.
Brandon Twine, who co-owns Pita Pit with his wife Kimberly, was also hoping for a different outcome from the Sodexo negotiations.
“We certainly wanted to aim for being on the meal swipes because we know that that’s where the big money is, but we’re still happy to take flex,” he said.
Students enrolled in William & Mary’s meal plan pay their balance to the college, and Sodexo will bill the college on a weekly basis for services they provide per a contract with the school. When students use Dining Dollars at locations not on campus – using their William & Mary IDs and a card reader at the establishment – restaurants keep track of the tallies, and then invoice Sodexo for the cost of the food.
“It’s all electronic so we can see what they’re spending in those locations,” said Bill Lacey, senior vice president of marketing and operations for Sodexo.
Lacey said Sodexo takes a uniform percentage off the top of the spending totals, as negotiated in contracts with the restaurants.
Patel expressed frustration with that aspect of Dining Dollars, as well.
“I want the public to know that even though the college is saying they’re helping us out, they’re still hurting our business by taking out this percentage,” he said.
For Subway store manager Nitesh Patel, that percentage cut proved to be too high. He said he already has to pay a 12.5 percent loyalty to Subway to operate within its franchise, and was facing a similar number to owe Sodexo. The percentage was negotiated down to 12 percent from 15 percent, but was not low enough to allow him to succeed in business, he said.
“Still from day one we are just struggling to survive here,” he said, adding the restaurant has not had any profits since it opened in the spot.
Nitesh Patel cites the unsatisfactory conclusion with the meal plan options as the reason he chose to move the shop out of the Tribe Square building. Subway closed its doors there June 27, and Nitesh Patel now works from the location just down the road in the Monticello Shopping Center on Monticello Avenue.
The business that takes Subway’s place in Tribe Square will have the chance to negotiate with Sodexo for a subcontract to be included in the meal plan, according to Anna Martin, William & Mary’s vice president for administration.
Nancy Buchanan – executive director of William & Mary’s Real Estate Foundation, which owns the Tribe Square building – said the foundation has not yet filled the vacancy but is actively seeking a new tenant.
While they are staying in Tribe Square, MOOYAH and Pita Pit report sales have continued to dip in the past year. Twine said he has noticed a 30 percent decrease in sales since the meal plan became mandatory, and Alpen Patel said his restaurant was averaging 6 to 8 percent more in sales in the same period of March and April 2013 as this past year.
The Crust went up for sale last year but Chief Operating Officer Pat Gordon, of owning company Baker’s Crust, said his business is no longer “actively pursuing a buyer.” Gordon did not offer further comment on the issue, except to confirm The Crust will be included in the new Dining Dollars option on the meal plan.
When the possibility of negotiations with Sodexo was put on the table, Twine and Alpen Patel were initially eager they might be able to make the switch to meal swipes when Sodexo took over.
Twine called it a vague hope, saying William & Mary President Taylor Reveley promised to make every effort to cooperate.
“Then the crushing reality set in when [Sodexo was] like, ‘No, you’re never ever going to take meal swipes,’” Twine said.
Alpen Patel felt a stronger commitment was made to the Tribe Square businesses, where he said there may have been a “misunderstanding” between what school officials said would be possible and what Sodexo could offer to the restaurants. He said Sodexo made clear up front Dining Dollars were the best-case scenario for meal plan inclusion.
Martin sat in on the initial meetings with Reveley as well. She said no promises were made, as the contract is strictly between Sodexo – as the school’s dining provider – and the Tribe Square businesses.
“When we talked to them, we said there is a variety of ways to approach it and that meal swipes were a possibility; flex points were a possibility,” Martin said. “It was just going to be something that Sodexo was going to have to work through with them.”
Lacey said Sodexo’s subcontracted eateries rarely accept meal swipes, though plans with Dining Dollars are common.
“I don’t know of any contract we have that we allow the meal swipes to be used by merchants,” Lacey said.
William & Mary has shifted its attention to Dining Dollars for the coming year’s meal plans, Martin said, based on student feedback through surveys, a dining advisory committee and other communication. There will be $1.2 million more in Dining Dollars available for students with meal plans – $600,000 per semester – which Martin said will give the retail locations in Tribe Square and elsewhere access to more student business.
Martin echoed William & Mary spokesman Brian Whitson, who last year said there are multiple factors that could lead to low sales for Tribe Square.
“I believe that there are multiple reasons for the levels of business and that mandatory meal plans are just a small part of that,” Martin said.
Alpen Patel wants evidence for those claims. He said instead of any dissatisfaction with service driving customers away, his restaurant receives frequent guest compliments, as well as being voted the favorite MOOYAH in the nation in a social media competition last summer. Pita Pit won a similar competition against other franchise locations in February 2013, which also won customers free food for the day.
The two businesses are trying to reach the loyal fan base and spread the word their businesses will accept Dining Dollars with the start of this school year.
Twine is hopeful Dining Dollars will be enough to improve business in the coming semester. From his talks with Sodexo, he does not expect the plan to change anytime soon.
“They pretty much told us that [meal swipes were] off the table forever,” Twine said.
Related Coverage:
- Aromas to Open Location at William & Mary’s Swem Library
- Tribe Square Businesses to Enter Meal Plan Negotiations With New W&M Food Vendor
- Tribe Square Business Owners Requesting Inclusion in W&M Meal Plans
- MOOYAH Williamsburg Wins Facebook Competition to Give Fans Free Food
- This Battle of Williamsburg a Winner for Pita Pit (w/Video)
- W&M Tuition Will Increase Next Year
