Sophomore Will Murray sat in the dining room at Tyler's Grill eating dinner with two of his friends the other night with empty tables all around him. The scene was a far cry from last year, when at peak meal times, the dining room would be packed and someone could be stuck for 45 minutes in the lines.
The first three weeks of the school year saw what Dave Kelly, a manager at Tyler's Grill, described as a significant drop in the number of students who ate at Tyler's.
The probable cause as to why fewer students were going to Tyler's — and one of the causes that Murray mentioned as to why his eating at Tyler's dropped from almost every day last year to about once or twice a week this year - was the new meal plan in which meal swipes are no longer accepted at Tyler's. Instead students have to use Dining Dollars for their purchases.
Blake Widdowson, director of retail operations, said that instead of eating at Tyler's, students are spending their Dining Dollars at other locations.
"What is happening is Tyler's sales have gone down some but the Cellar is setting records every day, ETC is setting records every day," Widdowson said.
Widdowson said that the decline in the number of students eating at Tyler's didn't come as a surprise because for the first two or three weeks of each new school year, more students eat at the Heilman Dining Center instead of Tyler's. This year is proving to be no different, as business has started to pick up, he said.
"Starting [the week of Sept. 13] we're seeing a bigger influx of students," Kelly said. "We are actually returning to the bigger lines so I think it might be the fact that the kids needed to get used to [the new plan]."
Both Kelly and Widdowson said that it would take time for students to get used to the new plan and that it gave more control to the student.
"Once everyone gets used to it and realizes now you have more control because your swipes are going to D-Hall but you're spending your dollars — and only your dollars — you're not using an extra swipe for nine cents, you're spending just for what you're purchasing," Kelly said.
Despite the increased control in spending money, not all students agree with the new system. Widdowson said that he had received three or four e-mails from students asking for meal swipes to be used at Tyler's.
Students will soon be able to spread their Dining Dollars to two more restaurants. Passport Cafe is scheduled to open later this month in the Carole Weinstein International Center and another yet-to-be-named cafe will open when Queally Hall is completed by next semester.
"We know that ETC money is going to go down, that Tyler's money is going to go down," Widdowson said. "All of my existing places have to decrease if any money is to move to these new places."
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If enough money does move from Tyler's to any of the new places, Widdowson said he would look to shift employees from Tyler's to the new places instead of laying them off.
Kelly said that he thinks that Tyler's will survive despite the arrival of two new food options for students.
"We're a totally different entity than the two of them will be," he said. "So I'm thinking we'll still have the loyal Tyler's customers."
Tyler's has already made some changes this year to its menu to try and keep it as a popular place for students to eat. The biggest change was putting the chicken parmesan sandwich on the permanent menu, and Kelly said that it was one of his best sellers so far this year. And that won't be the last change that is made to the menu this year.
"There's a lot of new things we'll do later this season," Kelly said. "Maybe some theme days and just some different specials."
Sophomore Kyle Faust said that he liked the change in the meal plans because it gave him more Dining Dollars. Murray said he didn't mind the new plan either even though it didn't allow him to use meal swipes at Tyler's.
"It's not the end of the world," he said.
Contact staff writer Andrew Prezioso at andrew.prezioso@richmond.edu
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