The Smith-Brownmemorial union has opened the doors of its first convenience store.
“Theconvenience store is a joint effort between our Chancellor (Edward) Jackson andmy campus dining director Paul Butler,” said Dolores Brown, assistant foodservice director.
”That’s something that they wanted tosee and add on to the campus dining for services that will benefit thestudents.”
The hours forthe convenience store are Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“Eventuallywere going to go up to 10 o’clock,” Brown said. On Fridays it will be open 11a.m. to 4 p.m.
Some studentsmay be wondering about I.D card usage in the convenience store.
“Your I.D cardhas your meal plan on it, your meal plan is for Mayberry or Dunn and then youhave something called declining balance dollars that you can use in the foodcourt,” Brown said. “That is for those areas. The C (convenience) store istotally separate. But you can add on additional dollars. If you want to keep thatone card, and you don’t want to keep cash in your hand, you can go and add onadditional dollars and put that on your card from the annex to use your card atthe C store.”
Brown receivedover 30-40 applications from students to work at the convenience store.
“I have threestudents working for me for the shifts that I need them to do,” Brown said. “Ihave two in the afternoon and one in the morning. As of now you do see foodservice workers over there but that’s because of how the student’s hours are.”
Brown said theprices in the convenience store are comparable to the outside market.
“We cannotcompare to Wal-Mart or K-Mart because they’re big corporations,” Brown said.”They serve a huge number of people in one day. We don’t, our clientele are ourstudents. The prices are comparable to what’s around you if you were to go to aconvenience store.”
Brown said thestudents are receiving the convenience store very well.
“They are veryappreciative, it’s very refreshing.”
Adrian Hogan, ajunior majoring in accountant from Hammond likes the convenient store. “I feelthe convenient store is very convenient for students who can’t get around.”
