Although many students anticipated a new array of delivery options after spring break, Dale’s Indian Cuisine, Mad Hatter’s Café and Bakery Shop, The Q Shack and Chai’s Noodle Bar and Bistro have yet to join Duke’s Merchants on Points program.
Gourmet Dining and Bakery, LLC.—the student-run company trying to allow students to order from the restaurants through Duke’s Blackboard Learning System—is still working out the kinks of its new online delivery service, which has delayed the eateries’ addition to the MOP program.
Sophomore Peter Williams, chief operating officer for GDB, said the company wanted to use this semester as a trial period and officially launch next fall. “We did not know exactly how long this would take,” he said. “We are still on our official timeline.”
One restaurant however, revealed the proposed start date of the agreement to The Chronicle, which informed students the new dining options would start this spring, Williams said.
“We never stated a date. The biggest problem was there was a date thrown out a long time ago. The restaurants broke their contractual agreements and decided to release dates in The Chronicle,” he said. “We didn’t want to get the hopes up of the students.”
Williams said the company has an understanding with the University that the program will start next fall.
Junior Garrett Bean, president of GDB, and managers at the four restaurants confirmed they are still working to get the restaurants on points before the end of the semester.
Junior David Gastwirth, co-chair of the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee, said the company underestimated the amount of work needed to introduce restaurants to MOP successfully. “The huge undertaking of linking the Blackboard system with the Merchants on Points system for the online ordering was a lot more difficult than the student company expected,” he said. “They were being very optimistic.”
Williams said this semester’s trial period has been delayed because the technology is new, and collaboration among GDB, Duke, Blackboard and the restaurants is often difficult.
“It’s not an organizational problem on Duke’s end. It’s a new system and a new technology,” he said. “I’d say the biggest problem we’ve been dealing with is how to authenticate personal student identification so that we follow University and government regulations.”
Many students anticipated the addition of the restaurants to the MOP lineup and were annoyed to hear the agreement had been delayed.
“I have food to eat without ordering from them, obviously,” said sophomore Laura Fuhrman. “I am more disappointed than anything else.” She also predicted the new restaurants would be popular because they offer extensive menus and not because of GDB’s online delivery system.
Managers from each of the four restaurants also expected the program to start earlier in the semester but were optimistic it would take off in the next week.
Bean confirmed the managers’ timetables are in line with his own.
“It was supposed to happen pretty soon after spring break and it still has not happened,” said Chris Pick, a manager at Chai’s. He added that his restaurant is not worried about losing money because of the delay, as Chai’s is still serving plenty of customers.
Jason Balius, owner of Mad Hatter’s, hopes the new program can begin as soon as possible.
“We’ve been ready to go for quite a long time,” Balius said. “We are ready to feed some students.”
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