INC NEWS - Duke Card has merchants singing blues (Sunday Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

Thanks for your note, Melissa. It's good to hear from
you (and others). And, thank you for posting the
DukeCard article on the Fairfield Neighborhood
listserv.

Last month, Duke CEO Tallman Trask told me he'd work
out some changes to the DukeCard and get back to me
"in a month" (that's Nov 18).

Right now, I haven't heard anything from Duke to
indicate that they won't be making some changes.
President Brodhead sent an me an encouraging email.

The million dollar question, of course, is how much
they'll reduce the set-up costs and commissions.

The first thing most people say is they can't believe
Duke is taking 18% from every sale (that's eighteen
percent). 

After posting the Chronicle article and editorial (re:
our concerns about the DukeCard) on a national
town-gown listserv, we learned that Indiana University
charges 3-5%. 

The other thing is this strange requirement that
students can't use the DukeCard off campus. According
to a Duke official in the Chronicle, this is to avoid
paying taxes. 

Needless-to-say, the DukeCard needs to be reformed,
not "tweaked." 

Anyway, let's wait to see what Duke proposes on
November 18. Then we can talk about next steps. :)

thanks for caring,
John

> I forwarded the Duke Card article to my neighborhood
> listserv and encouraged people to write President
> Brodhead if they support this initiative, especially
> if they are Duke Alumni. I agree that increasing the
> off-campus visibility and business of Duke Students
> would be great for Durham...and for the students,
> who
> should be encouraged to venture into the world
> beyond
> the campus walls...they're going to have to sooner
> or later :)
> 
> Do you think it would be worth starting an e-mail
> petition of Durham residents...I'm not sure how to
> do that, exactly. But it's an idea.
> 
> Cheers,
> Melissa Rooney
> Fairfield Neighborhood


> > Duke Card blues: Merchants want rules eased for
> > using student card to buy off campus
> > by Anne Krishnan, Herald-Sun, 13 November 2005   
> > 
> > The way John Schelp sees it, Duke University is an
> > island of 11,000 credit-card holders who eat,
> drink
> > and shop with currency that most off-campus
> > businesses
> > can't accept. 
> > 
> > "It's a captive audience you have on campus," he
> > said.
> > 
> > 
> > That's why Schelp and some merchants are calling
> on
> > the university to make it easier for local
> > businesses
> > to accept Duke Cards, the debit and meal card
> that's
> > generally regarded as the standard currency on
> > Duke's
> > campus. 
> > 
> > "That's almost the only thing you take out of your
> > wallet all week," said Ian Long, a sophomore
> English
> > major from California. 
> > 
> > But Duke requires off-campus merchants to spend
> > $1,200
> > in initial set-up costs and pay an 18 percent
> > commission to be able to accept the Duke Card.
> > What's
> > more, only restaurants can participate and they
> have
> > to deliver food to campus to take advantage of the
> > program. 
> > 
> > While 15 restaurants, 11 of them locally based,
> have
> > signed on to the plan since 1990, Schelp,
> president
> > of
> > the Old [West] Durham Neighborhood Association,
> has
> > heard others complain that the costs are
> > prohibitive. 
> > 
> > "It's just too much," he said. 
> > 
> > He's pressing Duke President Richard Brodhead and
> > Executive Vice President Tallman Trask to make the
> > system easier and cheaper. Trask agreed to review
> > the
> > program, and Schelp expects to hear from him on
> > Friday, a month from their last conversation. 
> > 
> > But Schelp isn't just looking for financial
> > concessions; he also wants to see Duke allow all
> > sorts
> > of merchants to accept the Duke Card for both on-
> > and
> > off-campus sales. 
> > 
> > "This is good for Duke, it's good for town-gown
> > relations and it's good for students," he said.
> > "It's
> > a win-win-win." 
> > 
> > Duke is conducting a financial and legal analysis
> of
> > its existing program, spokesman John Burness said.
> > He
> > wouldn't specify what aspects of the program might
> > be
> > tweaked. 
> > 
> > "We have a variety of different options and no
> > conclusions yet," he said last week. "Our goals in
> > making whatever changes might come about are to
> > provide greater convenience to our students while
> > helping to encourage existing businesses closest
> to
> > the campus to thrive." 
> > 
> > Students spend about $3 million a year on food
> > purchases from the 15 restaurants that deliver to
> > campus as part of the Duke Card program, Burness
> > said.
> > 
> > 
> > "The feedback [from those businesses] is
> > overwhelmingly positive," he said. Many vendors
> have
> > told Burness' colleagues that "if they didn't have
> > this relationship with the Duke Card program, they
> > wouldn't be in business," he said. 
> > 
> > Jimmy John's Sandwich Shops, which just started
> > accepting the Duke Card and delivering to campus
> > this
> > year, is reaping the benefits, said manager Tone
> > Gould. Half of the Ninth Street restaurant's sales
> > come from Duke Card purchases, he said. 
> > 
> > Likewise, Pop's Trattoria has been accepting the
> > Duke
> > Card since August. Even though the cost of the
> > program
> > is high, the extra business is still a benefit,
> said
> > Matthew Bason, who owns the Peabody Place
> restaurant
> > with chefs Chris Stinnett and John Vandergrift. 
> > 
> > The order volume is currently low enough that it
> > doesn't require any extra staff, and students
> using
> > the Duke Card aren't taking up seats that would
> > otherwise be occupied by diners paying all their
> > money
> > to Pop's, he said. 
> > 
> > "We're not losing business based on it, and the
> > business gained is business we didn't have
> before,"
> > Bason said. "For us, what the Duke Card offers is
> a
> > little bit of an extra bonus to any night's
> > business."
> > 
> > 
> > Pop's currently is filling four or five orders
> each
> > night through Gourmet Dining and Bakery, an
> Internet
> > service developed by Duke students that takes the
> > orders and delivers the food to campus. Five of
> > GDB's
> > 11 participating restaurants accept the Duke Card;
> > the
> > others accept payment by credit card only. 
> > 
> > Meanwhile, Blue Corn Café supports Duke, but its
> > business is strong enough that it doesn't need to
> > accept the Duke Card and pay the corresponding
> high
> > commission, said owners Danielle and Antonio Rios.
> > The
> > restaurant's margins are tight enough without
> having
> > to give a cut to the university, they said. 
> > 
> > The financial requirements aren't the only reason
> > restaurants don't participate. Fowler's Food and
> > Wine
> > co-owner William Simpson would be happy to pay the
> > commission if dealing with Duke weren't so
> > difficult,
> > he said. 
> > 
> > "We love Duke students and we'd love to be able to
> > offer the card," he said. "But finding the right
> > person who can make the right decision -- we've
> run
> > into logistical problems." 
> > 
> > The Regulator Book Shop also doesn't take Duke
> > Cards,
> > but that doesn't stop students from trying to use
> > them
> 
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