Whether you’re looking for your daily caffeine fix, picking up toiletries or browsing the sweet treat selection mid-study session, the Lobby Shop is an important fixture on campus. For many students, seeing that it was closed after winter break came as an unwelcome surprise.
“I go to the store at least a couple times a week to just get snacks or get ingredients for what I need in my dorm,” senior Yeeke Wang said. “So to see that it was closed off — for we don’t know how long — made me pretty upset.”
The Lobby Shop, located in the Bryan Center’s University Store, served as a convenient one-stop-shop for students to access toiletries and groceries without having to leave campus or use ‘real money.’ Students could buy a variety of food options on food points, and all products were available for purchase with FLEX points, cash and credit card.
But on the first day of classes last week, prospective customers were met with floor-to-ceiling tarps blocking off the venue and a sign reporting its temporary closure for remodeling.
According to Jim Maloney, deputy general manager of retail operations at the Duke University Stores, the renovations include an eight-foot expansion into the University Store space and a redesign of the shelf layout. The new shelving design will feature one row of shelving instead of the previous two, with the refrigerators remaining along the perimeter.
Maloney said he hopes a less cramped space will offer a more pleasant shopping experience, noting that “[the store will] be a lot wider, it’ll be easier to get in and out of [and] it'll be easier to shop and not be so congested.”
Maloney added that the newly-renovated lobby shop plans to reopen by “the end of next week,” likely before Jan. 24.
Construction for the space began Dec. 17 after final exams concluded for the fall semester. Maloney said that funding for the renovation was made available in October, and winter break was identified as the optimal time to complete the project to avoid significant business interruption.
“We knew we had at least three weeks,” he said. “We didn't want to wait till the summer, so this was really the optimal time during the school year that we could have done this.”
However, the remodel took longer than expected, which Maloney recognized has been “an inconvenience.” The project’s biggest time sink — and largest expense — was the removal and replacement of all its vinyl flooring.
Many students expressed frustration over the lack of communication from Duke about the store’s closure, which some felt was more disappointing than the closure itself.
“A lot of people depend on [the Lobby Shop] for food and toiletries,” senior Samantha Bernier Bermudez said. “… My fridge is empty because … I was going to stock up on [items with] food points, but I can’t.”
Senior Vincent Chen, a Hollows resident, described how the shop's closure left him and his suitemates with a shortage of toilet paper. They had reportedly bought just enough to last until the end of the fall semester, expecting to be able to restock when they returned in the spring — but the Lobby Shop’s closure put a wrench in those plans.
“I wish I knew about it before the semester started so I could adequately prepare for it,” Chen said.
He noted that he and his roommates rented a car for this weekend, and they plan to drive to Costco and replenish their supply. “It might be kind of close,” he said. “We’re on our last roll.”
When asked why the community had not been informed of the renovation ahead of time, Maloney reiterated that it was originally scheduled to be completed before students returned to campus.
“The frustration is understandable,” he wrote in a Wednesday email to The Chronicle.
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Karen Xu is a Trinity senior and a photography editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.