31 CommentsSix weeks ago, JJ’s place introduced an a la carte option for those who wanted to buy a quick snack without using a meal. JJ’s aimed to have 250 customers and/or $1500 in sales per week. However, over the 6 weeks it has been open, the new service has attracted only 91 customers and $625.77 in total sales. The bottom line: A la carte is in danger! If nothing changes before spring break, the dutch door at JJ’s will close for good. If you want to keep the a la carte option at JJ’s, go buy something!
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31 Comments
@Seriously, support the initiative to start a student-run cafe! If students are in control of our dining options, making changes regarding meal options, opening hours, etc. will be a matter of talking to your peers, instead of lobbying the administration with little power and little results.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dFlGbEgxVG42bTdILUUwbmJFYlIxQVE6MQ
Columbia should definitely continue to support unionized labor. While I’m unhappy with many aspects of CU dining, I’m proud to to have an administration that cares about worker’s rights. I would say that waste likely plays a huge role in the high costs of dining plans and other on campus options. If 50% of john jay food isn’t actually eaten (whether at the end of the night, or from a student’s plate) it’s easy to imagine why they have to charge so much to cover costs and make a profit.
@columbia needs to seriously de-unionize
@Bring Back the old JJs!
Also, they don’t even serve curly fries a la carte!
What’s the point?
@Anonymous Exactly why we need to sign this petition and make this student-run cafe on campus happen:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=141004302630611
@.... i sat on dining board last year..
so baiscally the reason why the food sucks in JJ and john jay dining hall and why they have to require freshman to buy the mealplan is because their labor costs are 3x higher than other food establishments in nyc.
columbia gives every worker a pension plan, health care, insurance, etc as well as a salary that’s much above the industry average.
so that’s why even with charging $12-13 per meal, food is shit
when i asked why dont we just pay them less, they said unions and all the liberal members in our columbia community who would protest human rights
@anon FUCK THE UNIONS
@LBB'12 personally that makes me a bit happier knowing the employees get a fair wage. I might actually get a meal plan now for my senior year next year. And come on the food isn’t that bad. there are a lot of options at john jay. the salad at john jay would cost you 7, 8 bucks alone at westside and the quality is comparable
@LBB'12 Also, maybe hiring fewer people would be another option. I mean how many people do you need standing around doing pretty much nothing in john jay
@senior again, unions
@... or in true capitalistic fashion we can just let a la carte die with all the other crappy buisness ideas.
@Anonymous I don’t understand why they would close the a la carte option, even if it’s not doing as well as they hoped it would. Is it making them lose business?
@blame it on the people who... think of it this way: it all sits with dining services. the people who totally screwed up this academic year when they tried to roll out the new dining plans and obviously did no homework or planning on how it would impact their customer base.
they turned lerner/ferris into an overcrowded mess with bad food. someone thought that closing john jay on friday and saturday was a good idea. epic fail – have you ever tried to find a seat in lerner when john jay is close? ever tried to fight your way through a line at ferris – ever? how about when they run out of food, which they seem to do with alarming regularity. oh… and how about trying to construct a healthful meal at these places????
dining services operates in some kind of vacuum business model where the quality of the service they provide does not enter into the equation. something as “trivial” as convenience –or as important as fun– does not exist for them at all.
@quality? “dining services operates in some kind of vacuum business model where the quality of the service they provide does not enter into the equation.”
It’s called mandatory meal plans for seniors. Dining could open John Jay only on Wednesdays from 3–5 pm and serve nothing but potatoes, and every freshmen would still have to pay them $1000.
@damn it I meant mandatory meal plans for freshmen. This isn’t Barnard; seniors aren’t forced to buy meal plans (yet)!
@true facts Dining tried really hard to make a new dining plan. It seemed awesome when they were planning it – new locations, wider selection, longer hours, cheaper meals. There’s no exact science for meeting all these goals though, so don’t hate on them for not getting it perfect.
Also, Vicki Dunn (Director of Dining) takes her job very seriously and cares so much about students’ opinions that she regularly reads these Bwog comments (!). Instead of criticizing her and Dining, why don’t you get in touch with her and offer your proposals for a different system? Or is this like JJ’s a la carte — worth complaining about, but not worth actually doing anything about?
@Anonymous Chut up
@SEAS '11 I’m confused. I thought JJ’s was the place that was kind of like an overpriced grocery store where you could get chicken fingers and fries. How is this new?
@Anonymous Maybe because the food there fucking sucks and isn’t hygienic in the least.
@JJ's hasn't been the same since freshman year, when the wings were perfect and the entire place was open till 4am. Now it’s just dead to me.
@what? Ahhh nostalgic complainers with unrealistic expectations. Who could have guessed that your empty protests didn’t reflect a desire to actually buy something, just to stop growing old?
@senior i don’t think the JJ’s as we remember it was ever in danger of shutting down its a la carte section.
@hungrier senior i always have a problem at Community, too. and the thing at mel’s is just crazy. i saw two guys trying to pick up a take-out order and ran out of cash because they would not take flex. after two months of being told the machine is not working, i have a sneaking suspicion something else is going on.
putting up a “NO FLEX TODAY” sign would help… a lot… then at least i could take my business elsewhere.
but i guess the issue really is not being able to rely on flex during those lean times when you need to. it’s really humiliating to be turned down and scramble for cash.
which leads to the bigger issue of why, after all these years, off campus flex still sucks. i know it had its growing pains at first which we ALL suffered through. but, come on guys, it should not be all that difficult to have a system that works.
or do “they” really not care? admin? are you listening? reading? any comments?
@Anonymous solution: get a job and stop mooching off your parents!
(or just get them to give you cash. i have yet to understand the appeal of flex.)
@hungrier senior lighten up, man. we all have those times of the month when we are short on cash no matter what the source of our “income” is. maybe it’s just cash flow but when you need something in overpriced boringside heights, you need something.
@hungry senior btw: what the f*ck is up with off-campus flex…. tried to use it at westside last night and they told me the system is down. even though they could take debit and credit cards.
also: mel’s… tried to use flex 4 times since winter break, and some guy always tells me that their machine is broken. huh? for two months?
maybe CU admin should start warning people not to rely on flex. gotta have a backup plan. like some cash in the pocket.
you’d think after all this time they would have gotten it together. asking for too much?
@CC'13 flex goes down at westside a fair bit but they always have it back within a few hours-i wish they would post a sign by the door or something, so my broke ass wouldn’t stock up on groceries .
i’ve had the same problem at mel’s too, really annoying. flex always works at milano and morton williams but it takes so long! i feel guilty. we need to modernize so i don’t have to spend any real money.
@Anonymous if people wanted the a la carte to stay open, wouldn’t they, you know, use it?
@Anonymous I actually tried to get something a la carte last night, but it was closed. Why isnt it open until 2am anymore? wtf
@Anonymous I went there around midnight TWICE this semester and the a la carte door was closed. I was told that I couldn’t purchase anything without a meal plan. I guess they don’t want my business.
@Anonymous THE DOOR IS ALWAYS CLOSED. YOU HAVE TO KNOCK.
@if it hasn't been answered since going on the meal plan jjay’s is 8pm-1am