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Issue date: 8/25/06 Section: Trinity Pulse

Media Credit: Christopher Cornell DOWN AND OUT: The C3 store will not yet close its doors. New ideas for the space are being brainstormed and weighed by Aramark, in hopes of making the space more accessible.

The Aramark personnel are currently searching for a solution to the long-defunct C3 space.

This semester, the convenience store in Coates Commons will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.

This past summer, Aramark worked to put a Quizno's on campus in the place of the C3 store.

"The location was ready-made," said Marketing Program Manager Domingo Gonzalez.
According to Gonzalez, the plan would not work because of health-code reasons. Aramark is still working to put at least one national name brand on campus.

"It's a complicated process," Gonzales said.
According to Food Service Director Bruce Bravo, to get a national brand on campus requires a large investment by Trinity and Aramark. From a business perspective, it is not always profitable to get a name brand like Starbucks or Quizno's on campus, because summer traffic on campus is so low.

"Summer programs have packaged meal plans," Bravo said.

According to Bravo, people staying at Trinity over the summer eat at Mabee Dining Hall and rarely go to upper campus.

Even if people staying at the University over the summer needed convenience items, the bookstore caters to those needs.

"The emblematic merchandise becomes convenience items over the summer," said Charlene Rhoads, acting manager of the University bookstore.

Using dine money at C3 is something Bravo and the Aramark team are considering.

"It's not that simple," Bravo said. "It affects how we pay our people, the food, the cost."

The meal-plan money is part of a budget that is planned out prior to the beginning of the school year. Gonzales said using dine at C3 "throws that off."

"We felt that space could be better utilized," Bravo said of the C3 location. "We want to be receptive to what the students want."

The C3 store has its origins with former Association of Student Representatives President Mat Young ('97) in the 1995 campaign.

Young's platform was the "3Cs: Cable, Coffeehouse and Convenience." Trinity installed cable in the summer of 1995. A "bland game room" was renovated a few years later to become a coffeehouse in the location of the current Tigers' Den, said Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life David Tuttle.

Continued...

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