At Boston College, students can use Eagle Bucks from their dining plans for sit-down meals at Pizzeria Uno Chicago Grill in Newton or Allston. For a $5.99 charge, students can dine in their rooms with BC’s Takeout Taxi service, which orders a taxi to pick-up and deliver food from Legal Seafood, Zaftig’s Delicatessen and Gourmet India.
Though Northeastern University and other area colleges offer similar services, Boston University dining administrators have several reasons for not doing so, said Craig Hill, associate vice president of business affairs.
BU does not have five dining halls, a large food court and scattered delis and cafés so students can sit in their dorm rooms and devour Chinese delivery, he said.
“We have these dining facilities to create a community, a sense of ‘This is BU,'” Hill said. “We want to encourage students to say, ‘Hey, let’s go to the [George Sherman Union].’ We want to get people to socialize, and over a meal is a good way to do it.”
That’s why the Domino’s Pizza locations on Boylston Street in Boston and on Cambridge Street in Allston are the only off-campus facilities that take dining points, he added.
REPLACING BU DELIVERY
Shortly after launching its own pizza delivery service out of the GSU in the late 1980s, Hill said Dining Services realized they were in over their heads.
“It was growing, but the growth was greater than what we could handle,” Hill said.
Meeting demand was a big enough problem, he said, but delivering a reliable product and finding regular staff to work late hours forced Dining Services to ask who does delivery best.
“I don’t think [Domino’s] necessarily means high quality, but it means consistency,” Hill said. “To me, high quality is Regina’s in the North End.”
After conducting student surveys and meeting with both franchised and privately owned pizzerias, BU partnered with Domino’s in 1991 to replace the failed on-campus venture.
Hill said the deciding factor was finding a pizzeria that could pick up where Dining Services had failed – something he said most mom-and-pop places did not have the capabilities to do.
“What makes Domino’s successful is they have a product that’s engineered to be delivered,” Hill said. “And much like McDonald’s, they have the consistency worked out. Every time you order Domino’s, it’s exactly what it’s expected to be.”
Domino’s also was one of the few merchants with the capital to invest in installing the computer system and equipment for BU dining points, Hill said.
Dining Services temporarily dropped the Domino’s contract in 1998 in favor of the now-extinct Baldini’s pizzeria in Kenmore Square. But Hill said the switch failed, and Dining Services soon renewed their Domino’s contract.
“Their product – as good as it was when you ate it in the restaurant – it wasn’t as good delivered,” he said.
POINTS PROFITS SHARED
Carlos Proeno, who has managed the Boylston Street Domino’s for five years, said the relationship with BU has been good for business.
Collecting the profits from points is “like a credit card,” he said; BU runs up a monthly balance, and the store collects at the end of each month.
But Domino’s does not collect all the profits earned from dining point transactions. BU collects what Proeno described as “a big chunk” of commission, though neither Hill nor Proeno would release the exact amount or percentages.
Hill said BU’s commission collection covers the lost margin from the former on-campus operation and helps support the costs of operating the point system.
“We’re not looking to get a piece of the action of everything a student does,” he said.
Domino’s headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich., did not return calls for comment.
NO PLANS TO EXPAND
As much as some students would like to see Dining Services extend the point system to their favorite Chinese restaurants and sandwich shops, Hill said BU has no plans to expand the dining points system.
Students can currently buy food with dining points at Tuscan Oven, Caprizzi, Aesop’s Bagels, Cranberry Farms and Copper Kettle (which are all Aramark internal brands), as well as at BU owned-and-operated franchises of Burger King, Jamba Juice, D’Angelos and Starbucks.
The school doesn’t even plan to make Ferretti’s, located on the first floor of Warren Towers, a dining points location. Although Dining Services owns and operates it, Hill said it’s marketed toward “the walker and convenience points and cash users.”
While each dining plan includes various numbers of dining hall meals and dining points, students can purchase convenience points at any time and use them at more locations, including laundry rooms, Campus Convenience and Barnes ‘ Noble at Boston University.
“[Ferretti’s is] for the customer who is on the street,” Hill said. “If it became a dining point location, it would be overrun every morning.”
BU also aims to keep its community on-campus as much as possible and be fair to other businesses, he said.
“[Choosing Domino’s] did have a negative impact on businesses up and down Commonwealth Avenue,” Hill said. “You don’t want to be in the business of picking and choosing.”
Among those affected is Sicilia’s Pizzeria owner Maroun Kleib, who said he would like to join the dining points program but does not know if BU will accept him.
“We’re on BU property. They should give us some consideration,” he said. “We’ve been struggling with the rent, which is $7,500 a month. It’s gone up every year.”
Although Sicilia’s has only been open since 1995 – four years after BU signed with Domino’s – Kleib said competing with the point system is difficult but manageable.
“We offer better food. We have all kind of salads, subs and appetizers that they don’t have,” he said. “They can make the pizza quicker because it’s like microwave pizza. Ours takes a long time for a reason.”
Whether by offering more items on their menus or by creating a unique atmosphere, Hill said area eateries have “all adjusted and found other ways to compete.”
Doing business exclusively with Domino’s also protects students, Hill said, because the contract prohibits the chain from charging more for those who pay with points.
PROTECTING DINING HALLS
Hill said expanding to other retail businesses could mean closing down a dining hall, because keeping five dining halls would become unprofitable if fewer people ate in them.
But students who live in BU housing without dining halls or who live off campus could benefit from more dining point delivery options, said College of General Studies sophomore Berneta Asato, a resident of 575 Commonwealth Ave.
“I live here, and it’s so hard to get to a dining hall, especially on days like this,” she said Thursday, gesturing to the downpour outside the Hojo’s study lounge.
Asato said she usually orders from Domino’s once a week, rotating who pays with her friends.
CGS sophomore Ale Chung agreed, saying she orders Domino’s because she can use dining points.
“Everywhere on Commonwealth Avenue should be dining points,” she said. “I think the older you get, the more you realize the dining hall sucks, so you get the plan with 500 points [per semester].”
Chung said she would like to see BU experiment with other retail options, and she thinks the GSU would still be profitable because of its central location.
CGS sophomore Lauren Arcidui said she envies the point system at Northeastern, where her boyfriend attends.
“They can even use it for tanning,” she said. “I hate the dining hall, so it would be nice if we had more delivery options because they bring it right to your dorm. And I don’t think we’re going to sit in our rooms and become hermits or anything. It’s just more convenient sometimes.”