Clark Student Center has a new quick stop for snacks and drinks, as the convenience store market is open adjacent to Chick-Fil-A.
Dean of students Matthew Park said the marketplace is in the midst of a soft opening while Chartwells, the dining service MSU contracts with, works out the details of the market.
“They are still working on some pieces related to the integration with the student meal plans. So I would say they’re still in soft opening phase at the moment, that’s why you haven’t actually seen university-based announcements,” Park said.
“Soft opening is kind of a nice way to say, “Open up to test things out,” in other words, working out the kinks. And that’s really, I think, the intent of it,” he added.
The new market will allow students to use their flex dollars, but not their meal exchanges.
“So the meal plans will be able to use their flex dollars, or declining balance dollars. And then other than that it would be like your traditional cash or credit card type of transactions. There’s no plans to have the meal exchange options,” Park said.
The previous occupant of the space, Ace Sushi, did not renew its contract with Chartwells after failing to meet sales goals. Now, the new market is nearly completely moved into the space.
Parks said the largest remaining hurdles are making sure flex dollars work at the location and installing a freezer. The freezer will stock items like hot pockets and what Park said was the most sought-after item not currently available on campus – ice cream.
The new market will operate during the same hours as Chick-Fil-A. While it doesn’t have an official name yet, Chartwells is gathering feedback from students on potential names.
Chartwells will also study how the new market impacts usage of the Legacy Market, with the hope that the CSC market will fill a different niche.
“We want it to be different from Legacy, we don’t want that. We don’t want, kind of, more of the same. It needs to be differentiated,” Park said.
Overall, Park said feedback has been positive for the new use of the space.
“There’s certainly a positive energy in the sense of having something open finally.
It did take, I think, longer than dining was hoping to get through those key steps,” Park said.
