I work at one of the many coffee shops Washington State
Dining Services owns around campus. Most people know where this building is; Lighty,
also known as the French Administration building (I don’t know why), usually
features in every student’s college experience at some point. I serve drinks
and sandwiches to a constantly-flowing stream of customers, mostly comprised of
students and faculty.
The employees come in two breeds: outrageously cranky or incredibly
friendly. Many of them work in the Financial Aid office, constantly desperate
for caffeine and headache-relief.
But more importantly, all customers can be divided into the three
forms of payment we take: cash/check, Cougar Card/ RDA, or credit/debit (minus
American Express). My job as cashier (plus making food and drinks) allows me to
witness firsthand the forms of payment people use. Many students use RDA and Cougar
Cash; because faculty can’t access RDA (Resident Dining Account) they can use
Coug Cash instead. Many staff personnel who use Coug Cash have very old, dated
cards, which still somehow work on our system. We swipe their retro, faded, flimsy
cards and send them on their ways. Some cards are so old they require extra
swipes for the machine to properly read them.
However, many faculty and students use cash to pay for their
drinks and breakfast sandwiches. In fact, I always joke that this is as good a
place as any to get rid of extra cash. Sometimes I get handfuls of germy change,
which I usually never bother counting because it’s a pain.
I wonder if my frequent handling of cash-bacteria is the
reason I’ve been sick lately. Hmm.
Personally, I like using a combination of Cougar Cash (you
get a discount!) and normal cash, but also debit if I’m really low on the other
forms of money. My credit card also works as a debit card, as it links to an
online account I can access any time.
In the old days (as of like, 2 years ago) Lighty Cafe used
to only take cash and Coug Cash/RDA. The other day I had a customer who came up
to me at the cashier.
She asked me, “Do you take credit card?”
I was like, “Oh yeah! Except for American Express.”
“For how long?”
“About two years, now.”
She flipped out, exclaiming, “What? No way! I didn't know
that! You guys never told us!!” She was very distressed that no one had informed her
we now accept other forms of payment.
I was amazed that this lady, who clearly hadn't visited our
cart in over two years, could be so irritated at something so silly. It's just coffee, lady, if you needed to use your card for coffee so badly you should have read the signs posted everywhere that tell you that we now accept your form of payment.
But reactions like this are normal; mess with people’s money
or routine in any way, and you must be willing to suffer the consequences. Food services can be a thankless job indeed.
So for now, the place I work accepts nearly ALL forms of
payment, making it quite accessible for both students and staff. Maybe my managers should have sent an email to everyone belonging to WSU. Yeah. They'll be sure to do
that next time we change anything to do with money...
Josie, I agree with you completely as soon as you change a customer's routine it throws them off completely. We recently re-modeled our store (in June 2013) and we still have customers commenting on how things have changed, some like it while others don't. I do agree there are the kind customers who understand and are patient with you and there are those who are not and do get upset over the most silly things, especially when money is involved.
ReplyDeleteI agree that accepting almost all forms of payment makes the espresso bars and dining centers more accessible for everyone, and I definitely can relate to your experiences with various types of customers. I currently work at Panda Express in the CUB, I have worked at Northside Dining Center and Market and Flix Cafe and Market, and I was working at the Lighty Espresso Bar when they first began accepting debit/credit cards. (Personally, I like the older Cougar cards with the white backgrounds versus the newer ones with the Bryan Hall clock tower. The older ones are thicker and last longer, evident by the fact that so many of them are still even useable, whereas many students have had to replace their "new" cards within two to three years of moderate use.) Overall, Cougar Cards were seen less as people began choosing to use their debit/credit cards instead, once that was an option, despite the discount that Cougar Cash gives.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is because Cougar Cash is accepted at so few businesses comparatively on the WSU campus and in Pullman, in general. In the past, a few select businesses in the Pullman community were also able to accept Cougar Cash, so this gave both parents a way to send money to their children without having to go through a bank and students a way to buy necessities where they wanted to. Then WSU stopped allowing outside businesses to accept Cougar Cash, and although using it gives students a discount, this often does not offset the premium they must pay for the convenience of buying something on campus, so the number of students using Cougar Cash declined.
During the Alive! sessions, even though they have not set up accounts with Cougar Cash yet, incoming students were still able to utilize the espresso bar, because so many people already have a debit card coming into college. Even as freshmen students do not have much incentive to begin using Cougar Cash, because they have access to RDA, which gives them a deeper discount and parents are able to deposit money remotely into their RDA accounts, just like with Cougar Cash. After moving out of the dorms, students still have their debit cards to make most of their purchases off campus without the convenience premium of on campus stores. Thus, Cougar Cash is, in my opinion, severely underused among the student population, especially in light of how popular and easy obtaining and using a debit card is nowadays. I believe the system needs to be re-vamped or risk falling into disuse (and WSU does not seem to be interested in saving Cougar Cash by beginning to accept debit/credit cards in their dining and espresso facilities).
It's true, debit cards seem to be very popular! When I use my Cougar Cards often cashiers are surprised.
DeleteI have to agree with Verse, when it comes to people using their debit/credit cards more than Cougar Cash. She mentioned that Freshman are already coming in to college with debit cards so their need for Cougar Cash is diminished. I know that when I first started at WSU I already had a debit card and only used Cougar Cash when my parents would randomly put some money onto it. I know that my parents liked it because it was easy for them to put money on it, but there are only a limited amount of places that I can spend it. I mainly use it in the CUB for school supplies and books. Money and its various forms seem to always be changing and with younger people now having debit cards I think it does take away from what Cougar Cash is trying to achieve (I know I got my card in 9th grade). Plus it is a form of money that is only used through WSU which makes me almost feel like it isn't even real. It only exists within the sphere of Pullman. I don't want to turn my money into Cougar Cash because what I can do with it becomes so limited even though there is a slight discount.
ReplyDeleteYa, it's true that Coug Cash is less versatile than debit. I never put any of my own money there; I let my parents do it, if they want to, too!
DeleteBecause I transferred to WSU and never lived in a residence hall or on campus, I'm not really familiar with CougarCash or RDA so much. I'm wondering now what the real benefit of maintaining the system is to the university. Sure, it may be easier to transfer funds to a student with it, but how hard is that through a bank? I gave my grandmother my bank information and easily got set up so she can deposit little gifts into my account without sending it via mail across the state. So if parents can easily deposit money into a real checking account, money that students can use ANYWHERE, why have Cougar Cash? I have to say, I'm kind of questioning the university's motives here. Students save money by using CougarCash as opposed to using credit or debit, but how is the university affording that? Either they're losing money or the price is just jacked up for credit/debit. So is the university profiting on CougarCash? Do your funds ever expire?
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm just failing to see is why the university doesn't just do away with CougarCash, allowing students to choose between RDA or actual money, and not having this in-between, monopoly money sort of option that isn't RDA, isn't cash, and can only be used in a number of places on campus. Where you can now also use cash.
Josie,
ReplyDeleteGood post! Nice first hand account of how people on campus, both faculty and students, pay for their coffee. I had no idea Lighty took physical money. The majority of the coffee shops on campus don't. My step dad came to visit once for dad's weekend and tried to pay for a coffee with cash in the Northside Market. The barista said "I'm sorry, we can't take cash." and he didn't know how to react. He was so taken back by the fact that a market refused to take physical money. To me, I had never even thought about it since I use RDA and Cougar Cash, and even when I buy things off campus, I use my credit or debit card. It really shows the generational gap between our culture, and our parents' cultures.
I wonder if one day, cash will be obsolete and people will no longer accept credit or debit, but only store/company-certified forms of payment like Cougar Cash, RDA, Nordstrom Notes, Kohl's Points, etc.
As you said though, don't mess with people's money!!
Kyleen