Student businesses initiate changes for spring

Katie Walsh, Managing Editor

The new year dragged in new promotions, hours and materials at the different student run businesses on campus. 

Pace Mart

Pace Mart cut all weekend hours and eliminated the morning hours. General Manager Sammi Li said that they receive the biggest traffic during common hour and when students are heading to and from their evening classes. Thus, encouraged their decision to cut the morning hours.

Furthermore, the mart found that they find campus to be slow on the weekends with a lot of students traveling home. In addition, it is still early on in the semester and the library does not have a lot of student traffic yet.

Li also explained that their big selling point of Pace Mart was the Golden Barrel coffee that was found exclusively at Pace Mart. However, Chartwells decided to invest in their coffee as well, after survey’s found students were unsatisfied with the coffee station last semester. 

Moreover, one of the mart’s main customer targets were the commuter students on campus. Specifically since many commuter students spend time studying in the library in between their courses. However, commuters no longer receive flex dollars on their account which is causing many to stray away from spending cash on campus. 

These factors have contributed to the changing hours of the mart, but are also causing reactive changes to the location. Li stated that they are working towards utilizing marketing skills through rebranding the location and offering different promotions that motivate students to come to the library. Li, who was accompanied by Julia Kennedy, hinted that they are working towards adding a new self-serve snack bar.

Pace Delivers 

Pace Delivers is continuing to upgrade their service to Pace students by increasing their vendors. Towards the end of last semester, they added Asian Legend to the menu. General Manager Kyle Coimbra said they are looking into adding Wendy’s to their 10 p.m. delivery time. However, if  the Wendy’s option falls through, Coimbra mentioned they are hoping to add a fast food location of some sort. 

Recently, Pace Delivers sent an email out that included a survey to all Pace students. The survey questioned whether students would be interested in having a morning delivery time to serve breakfast. Coimbra said the result pointed in favor of the new delivery time. The locations they would be looking into would be Bagelicious, Dunkin and or McDonalds. The goal would be to catch students after their 9 a.m. classes and before students enter the 10:35 a.m. class time. The challenge remaining for Coimbra would be to find staff that would be willing to drive around to the places during the morning hours. 

The delivery business also recently launched a new app that students can purchase in the app store. Their hope is to add different promotions and discounts for those who utilize the app to help increase student downloads. 

Pace Perk 

Pace Perk Chief Operating Officer, Devin Stafford, says their focus has been on renovating the equipment, in addition to working on the overall atmosphere of the late night cafe. Stafford explained that their service has improved because of the two new turbo chef ovens that were just installed. The ovens allow them to decrease the waiting time for customers. 

Furthermore, the chalkboard wall that is located in the cafe has been cleared for newer Pace students to be able to write on. Previously the wall was filled with words from students who have graduated from the university. 

Although there are no current new products for this semester, staff said the cafe has a suggestion box and are always looking to add products on campus for students that are not provided by Chartwells. 

Pace Fit

Pace Fit, the newest student-run business on campus, released a new menu according to their official Instagram page. Furthermore, the business is allowing students to purchase “health setter cards.” These cards are available for both large and small smoothies and allow students to save 15% off by pre-purchasing seven smoothies in advance.