Ryan ChartrandCredit and debit card use is now permitted at all Campus Dining restaurants.
“It’s really convenient,” said Sandwich Factory supervisor Claudia Boller. “I don’t know how we got along without using them.”
Civil and environmental engineering senior Ben Morgan didn’t know that Campus Dining accepted credit and debit at all of its locations.
“That’s great,” he said. “There have been so many times when I’ve gotten to the register and realized I didn’t have any cash.”
During summer quarter, Campus Dining eliminated the $300,000 5-year-old point-of-sale (POS) machines and replaced them to allow customers to use Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express.
Until now, only Plu$ Dollars, Campus Express credit and cash have been accepted at Cal Poly eateries.
The only exceptions are Campus Market and Vista Grande Restaurant, which have allowed patrons to charge their cards for nearly 15 years. Also, people could use credit and debit cards to purchase Care Packs, such as cakes and certificates, or very large purchases from Campus Dining.
As of Wednesday, 15 percent of students had used their credit or debit cards at the restaurants.
“We’ve aspired to do this for many years,” said Alan Cushman, associate director of Campus Dining. “We had to wait for the old POS to change out.”
Campus Dining partnered with ASI to implement the new system. ASI brought the student body desire for credit and debit card capabilities to Campus Dining last year.
“Our first goal is customer satisfaction,” Cushman said. “We’re here to provide services to the students. In addition to offering alternative locations for what they want, we want to give them as many ways as possible to do so.”
Some setbacks will come with the new register system. There are added costs associated with the new POS, including bank fees for every transaction.
However, Campus Dining anticipates the new system to fully pay for itself soon.
“One of our aims for the new system is to become financially viable and make additional revenues to go back to the students,” Cushman said. “That way, the money stays with student interests in mind, whereas if they went off-campus, the money goes to those vendors.”
Employees at The Avenue said that the registers process data more slowly since they started accepting credit and debit cards. Campus Dining has acknowledged that at times a transaction might take seconds more than usual to process credit or debit card information.
It is also likely that, with the acceptance of credit and debit cards, the use of Campus Express will decrease.
“I’ll still use Campus Express at the bookstore,” journalism sophomore Melissa Montecuollo said. “But people are definitely going to use their credit cards at the restaurants.”
Campus Dining denied that they considered it would be an issue.
“Using Campus Express has its benefits too,” Cushman said. “You could deposit money from your credit or debit card into your Campus Express card. Using Campus Express comes with lots of discounts.”
While the new POS system is starting out successfully, Campus Dining plans on holding an evaluation in a few weeks to officially assess its efficiency.