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The Rice Thresher
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by Ben Weston Thresher staff
The Subway and store share a space in what used to be the front of the Campus Store. A new exterior door has been added on the inner loop side of the Rice Memorial Center so the store and Subway will be able to operate independently from the rest of the RMC. Assistant Director for Food Operations Matt Morgan said the schedule will be the same for the first couple of weeks of school. The store and Subway will be open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Sundays. Once Morgan gets an accurate idea of peak hours, he said, the store's hours will be adjusted. "The critical thing for us was getting the construction complete and getting it open because the time frame was very short," Morgan said. "We need to see how this is going to play out, what the demands of the students are going to be." The convenience store will be stocked according to student preference, Food and Housing Director Mark Ditman said. For the moment, however, the selection mirrors that of the University of Houston's on-campus convenience store. "The way that we set it up initially was to essentially duplicate the product mix at U of H ... just to have something on the shelf to start," Ditman said. The current product lineup is comprised mostly of individually packaged snack items. The store also stocks refrigerated drinks, microwave dinners, toiletry products and household items such as aluminum foil. Hanszen College junior Gavin Parks said that he liked the store and thought it was a good use of space, but that the selection was a bit random. "You're going to have to give it a few more weeks, a few months to figure out," Parks said. Ditman and Morgan toured a number of other universities last year, and said they expect students to want more bulk items than are currently stocked, such as economy-sized laundry detergent or family-sized bags of chips. These items take up more shelf space, but Ditman said he expects the density of the shelving to go up, and there is potentially room for more shelving if needed. "We certainly at some point would like to expand," Morgan said. "I don't know if we'll be able to, but we also are considering taking the bookracks out and putting some shelving in there to offer more variety or more bulk stuff." The Subway will have the same hours as the convenience store, replacing Sammy's late-night service. Sammy's will now be open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, plus training table each evening. In addition, because of the exclusive contract F&H now has with Subway, Sammy's can no longer carry sub sandwiches from other companies. However, Ditman said this exclusive contract will not affect Willy's Pub (which serves Blimpie's subs) or Valhalla (which serves Kahn's Deli sandwiches). Morgan said Sammy's late-night could make a return if Student Center traffic increased, but he said the current level of traffic is not enough to support both operations after hours. Student Center Director Boyd Beckwith said although Sammy's will not be open for late-night dining, the seating space outside Sammy's, along with the Red and Blue Rooms of the Coffeehouse, will be open as long as the Student Center is. Another option, Ditman said, would be to move the pizza ovens into the Subway to give students more variety. But for now, late-night options are either sub sandwiches from the franchise or snacks from the convenience store. Almost no aspect of the operation is finalized, Morgan said. From the hours to the product selection to the amount of shelving, everything can and will be changed once F&H can collect student opinion. The current setup is just a base to work from, he said. "Everything's kind of up in the air," Morgan said. "We need to see what student reaction is, get input from students, and that's what we'll base our decisions on."
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