Ever since Dale’s Indian Cuisine left the Merchants on Points program in 2018, there has been a chicken tikka masala-void in the stomach of every student looking for evening delivery.
At its weekly meeting Wednesday, the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee discussed the addition of a new Indian restaurant, Naan Stop, to the Merchants on Points program—a menu of vendors from which students can order using food points.
Baljeet Singh, the owner of Naan Stop—an Indian restaurant in Durham that has been open since January 2018—gave committee members a sampling of the restaurant's selection, which includes chicken tikka masala, paneer masala, pakora fritters and gulab jamun—a traditional dessert involving balls of syrup-glazed fried dough.
Once the committee was satisfied, it was their turn to convince Singh that it would be worthwhile participate in the Merchants on Points program. Duke Dining takes a cut of every purchase that is made using food points, explained Aris Marton, assistant director of retail operations for Duke Dining.
Singh was undeterred by this news, especially after sophomore Jonah Lowey said that Campus Enterprises, a student-run business he works for, could hire out delivery drivers to Naan Stop from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., the operational hours of Merchants on Points.
DUSDAC Co-Chair Aryaman Gupta, a junior, reminded Singh that she was free to increase the price of her food for Duke students so that she would make the same profit after Duke Dining takes its cut.
However, Singh said she would opt to keep the prices constant.
“The price will be the same. Any of the companies I work with, my food has the same price and the same menu,” Singh said. “I just want the students to enjoy the food.”
Singh expressed disappointment that she could not open a new store in a location on campus, because every restaurant venue at Duke is currently occupied. She said that this possibility was “something to hope for in the future.” She mentioned interest in further expansions of her restaurant’s presence at Duke, such as serving meals to students during the summer and catering for resident assistant programs.
“It’s a two-way street," Gupta said. "We want to eat your food, so we’re going to do what we can to help you out."
Once Singh had left DUSDAC members expressed concern about the visibility of the Merchants on Points program as a whole. Marton shared that most vendors participating in Merchants on Points have experienced a decrease in sales through the program. The vendors averaged an 8 percent decrease in sales from Fall 2018 to Fall 2019.
The only vendors that saw an increase in deliveries to DukeCard holders in that time frame were The Loop Pizza Grill and the Jimmy John’s on Ninth Street, both of which experienced dramatic sales increases of more than 20 percent.
Kwok theorized that these two restaurants simply advertise better than the other vendors in the program. DUSDAC also agreed that most Duke students either don’t know that they can use their food points to order delivery from off-campus restaurants, or they consider the ordering process too inconvenient.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Duke Dining could hire out delivery drivers to Naan Stop, but the DUSDAC member was referring to Campus Enterprises, a business he works for. The Chronicle regrets the error.
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