Deli-turned-salad-station big success at Bucknell

The Commons Café on the south side of the Bucknell University campus was first opened in the fall of 2015 to accommodate expanded residential housing in the area. Originally operating as a miniature version of the largest retail location on campus, although with a different menu, it offered deli sandwiches, flatbreads, a grill serving burgers and hot dogs and some entrees.

Unfortunately, sales numbers and traffic counts were below projections over the course of the 2015-2016 school year, so Bucknell and its foodservice provider Parkhurst Dining developed an entirely new concept for the location.

Instead of the deli, there is a chopped salad station where each day a seasonal rotation of greens, vegetables, fruits, proteins, housemade dressings and crunchy toppings are offered to customers who can customize their salad creations. In addition, the salads are not costed by weight but on a flat fee that depends on whether a protein is included or not.

The grill offerings now consist of a selection of made-to-order burgers and sandwiches featuring a more upscale variety of toppings. There’s even a signature sandwich unique on campus to the Commons Café: the salmon quinoa burger, made in-house every day.

A signature sandwich unique on campus to the Commons Café is the salmon quinoa burger, made in-house every day.

The concept was adapted from a smaller version that previously ran out of a station in the school’s main retail location. It was beefed up and moved to the stand-alone location but because of the streamlined menu that puts the focus on a small number of items, they can be of much higher quality and very customizable.

The results speak for themselves. Last fall, in the first semester of the new concept, sales were nearly $230,000, or almost 50 percent more than the previous fall semester. Customer counts were also up substantially—over 20 percent—as was the check average—also over 20 percent.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, the spring semester performance was even better, with a sales lead of almost 87 percent, a customer count jump of 55 percent and a check average leap of over 20 percent, versus the previous spring.

Guest survey results from students dining in the Commons Café support the sales statistics, with overall satisfaction scores jumping from an average of 4.38 (out of five) to 4.5 between fall 2015 and fall 2016, and taste of food scores going from 4.42 to 4.62 on the same scale.

Promoting the changes at Commons Café was a priority at the start of the 2016 school year, says Dave Freeland, district manager for Parkhurst at Bucknell, with the primary target audience being upper-class students with and without meal plans, though all marketing pieces organically touched first-year students as well. Those included posters, digital and print signage, social media and newspaper ads, with additional coverage coming from on-campus media stories about the venue’s changes.

“In summary, we recognized the potential to elevate an existing chopped salad station from good to great,” says Freeland. “We developed a new, unique and highly desirable concept to capitalize on a new location on the campus’s periphery and we met the students’ desire to increase healthier and fresh eating options—all with a minimal monetary investment.”