FM 2010 Best Concept Awards' Best Service Concept: Miami (OH) University's Dividends Café

WINNER: MIAMI UNIVERSITY

ENTRY: DIVIDEND$

THE BIG IDEA: The bar-coding and self-checkout features at Miami's Dividend$ retail outlet in its new Farmer School of Business allow the venue to process a high volume of customers quickly and efficiently while documenting and tabulating the purchases in real time for internal tracking purposes.

Bar codes appear on every purchase made by students at the five food/beverage stations and the extensive grab and go case. Uniquely, custom orders made from a variety of components are also reflected on a single bar code generated as the customer builds the order. That makes for quick and convenient checkout while giving the operation an electronic record of the components purchased for sales and forecast analysis purposes.

Dividend$ offers selections ranging from panini sandwiches, sushi and quiche to made-to-order salads, dim sum and pastries. It draws over 1,700 patrons on a typical day, generating daily sales of more than $9,500. That pace will allow the school to pay down its $2 million investment in the venue in less than five years.