Ohio University Dining Services is scaling back its recently introduced Dining Dollars program after determining that it was hurting cash sales in its new Baker University Center food court

FM Staff

Ohio University Dining Services is scaling back its recently introduced Dining Dollars program after determining that it was hurting cash sales in its new Baker University Center food court. In April, Dining Dollars were barred from being used between 11 am and 1 pm, and this coming fall, only incoming freshman will get a minimal 50 Dining Dollars with their meal plans. The program had been introduced in January as a way to encourage meal plan holders to try the new Baker food court. Students with 10 meal plans received 50 Dining Dollars and those with broader plans got 100. However, the Dining Services department soon determined that the Dining Dollars holders were overwhelming the food court during lunch hour, crowding out those paying with cash or credit cards. A study of January sales data, found that Dining Dollars represented 61 percent of the food court’s total sales and cost the university an estimated $500 per day in cash business, according to a report in the university’s The Post campus newspaper. It noted that according to Dining Services, Dining Dollars cost the university $673,624 in the winter quarter, when about $600,000 in Dining Dollars were spent, and will cost $659,643 in the spring, when a similar amount is expected to be spent.