Just over two months since dining venues across campus adopted a mobile ordering system, students and employees see positives and negatives of the program.
Mobile ordering at the Tea House was introduced to campus last April and was extended to Café 77, E. Café and Fireside this term.
To place an order, students and faculty sign on to the Transact mobile ordering app using their Washington and Lee University credentials.
The app provides a small selection of customizable options for each food and drink item. Although not as flexible as ordering in person, the app allows customers to customize milk options, syrup additions and extra espresso shots in coffee beverages.
Employees of campus dining facilities told the Phi they are happy with the addition of mobile ordering.
“I think it’s very helpful,” said Tea House Supervisor Brooke Merchant. “It hasn’t made us busier as [customer traffic] is still pretty evened out. But the students have really benefited from it.”
Shelly Lloyd, concessions manager of the E. Café, also said mobile ordering is helpful.
“Students have certainly loved it. It puts less stress on us to get the food out on a time crunch,” said Lloyd.
Three employees said that as people started to discover mobile ordering, it has kept dining staff busy throughout their hours instead of keeping them busy at some and vacant at others. They said one of the best impacts is that students can use the grab-and-go program between classes.
But some employees say there are some issues with the app.
“I think mobile ordering has been going smoothly for us other than the fact that there are limited options to customize your drinks to a specific manner, such as preferring one pump of syrup instead of four,” said Beatrix Suh, ’27, an employee at Tea House. “Another issue I have noticed is that it is difficult to project when the customer may arrive. And we may finish the drink within a minute, but they arrive 15 minutes later which can make the drink more watered down or lukewarm.”
Students said they are enjoying the app, especially since the university decreased the amount of time between class blocks from 15 to 10 minutes this year.
“Mobile ordering is convenient for me on days I’m short on time but need to grab something quickly. It’s helped me not skip a meal because instead of waiting in line, I can just collect my food on the way to class,” said Joci Chavez, ’27.
