By: Dana Sung and Alex LaSalvia
The days of having to ration Convenience Points to pay for both laundry and food are over, according to Boston University officials, who last week announced that City Convenience and several other campus food staples now accept Dining Points as well.
The upgraded payment system, which has long been requested by BU students, was implemented in time for the start of the 2019 fall semester, according to James Boushka, marketing director for BU Dining Services.
All three City Convenience locations on campus now accept Dining Points as payment for food and beverages, as do the Starbucks, Basho Express and Subway at 700 Commonwealth Ave. Two new businesses under Warren Towers — Healthy Blends and Mama DeLuca’s — are accepting Dining Points as well.
“It’s a great idea because I would always run out of Convenience Points whenever I went to [City Convenience],” said Seyun Om, a sophomore in the College of Fine Arts.
The new Healthy Blends location at 700 Commonwealth Ave. replaced Jamba Juice, which closed in August, as a top spot for smoothies on campus. Mama DeLuca’s is located next to the counter at Subway, and offers made-to-order pizza, chicken wings and pasta.
The West Campus dining hall is now home to a new late-night eatery modeled after Late Night Café at Warren Towers, Boushka wrote. Both late-night options accept Dining Points.
Emma Schneider, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she’s excited to be able to use Dining Points at Basho Express, one of her favorite on-campus eateries.
“I eat a lot of Basho, so that’s definitely going to make it easier for me to eat more Basho — that’s number one for me,” Schneider said. “It’s definitely going to make my life easier because City Co. is open the latest, so I thoroughly appreciate it.”
The new payment system affords students more flexibility when it comes to how they spend their money on campus while also incentivizing more students to get their meals, snacks and coffee on campus, Boushka said.
“BU Dining recognized growing student sentiment requesting to use their meal plan in more dining locations,” Boushka wrote. “The driving factor in prompting the change was to increase the value and convenience of using a meal plan.”
Ivana Encarnacion, a supervisor at the Starbucks at 700 Commonwealth Ave., said she thinks the change will increase student traffic at her Starbucks location.
“It’ll definitely make business be more booming,” Encarnacion said. “It will pick up because … before, we only took Convenience Points, so more people tended to steer toward the GSU [Starbucks] because they took Dining Points.”
Encarnacion said that lines at the Warren Starbucks may get longer, but they are also working on adding mobile ordering to that location, which would counteract long lines.
Mobile ordering will work with BU’s point system, she said, but she couldn’t confirm whether it would use Convenience Points, Dining Points or both.
The new and improved payment system can also save students some cash, as Dining Points are not taxed, while the purchase of Convenience Points is, Boushka said.
“That’s a 6.5 percent savings on each transaction,” he said.
Guorong Liu, a graduate student in the Metropolitan College, said he expects students to spend more at the upgraded locations now that they have more payment options available to them.
“It’s convenient for students,” Liu said. “It’s a double-win situation. The businesses can have more money and the students can feel it’s convenient for them to buy stuff.”
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