Burnaby campus’ Highland Pub has cancelled its signature Toonie Tuesday offer, a deal that allowed students to indulge in jalapeno poppers, burgers, fries, edamame beans, spring rolls, or queso sticks on Tuesday nights in return for their pocket change.
The cancellation of Toonie Tuesday was not announced; rather, students who came in for the deal last Tuesday were disappointed to hear that the offer no longer exists. The Highland’s online page, hosted on the SFSS website, is still advertising Toonie Tuesday.
John Flipse, the SFSS Food and Beverage Services manager, stated that the decision to cancel Toonie Tuesday was based primarily on health, not on cost. “To me it’s a health concern. One in three kids in Canada are overweight. I think we should make a bit of a change. I know they are probably gonna buy it anyway, but we don’t have to do that, we have better options for it. I know we can provide those at a good price range.”
When asked whether healthier menu alternatives have been put in place in response to these concerns, Flipse replied that they have not, but that he will be looking at implementing changes to the menu in the coming months. “We have to restructure our menu after September,” Flipse said. “Menu prices haven’t changed for a number of years, but the food costs have gone up considerably. But we would try to keep the changes to a minimum.”
Flipse stated that the decision to cancel Toonie Tuesday was based primarily on health, not on cost.
The Highland Pub, which is a branch of the SFSS Food and Beverage Services, had been consistently losing money for years before Flipse came into the manager position in the winter of 2012. Flipse joined SFSS Food and Beverage Services as a non-unionized, contract manager with 10 years of managing catering operations at UBC.
“The pub hasn’t been financially viable for many years and students are paying for that,” Flipse said on the subject of these losses. “I don’t feel like the students are paying too much on this. So we are looking towards reducing our loss probably to $150,000 a year.”
Flipse’s strategy for reducing the Highland Pub’s financial losses is focused around restructuring the pub’s hours of operation, based on an analysis of sales during different times of day over the previous few years.
“We were running certain services at certain times with very little sales and it cost us more to operate it,” Flipse said. “We would lose some sales in reducing such hours but our margin would go slightly higher.”
Flipse stated that through this method of reducing hours, the Highland was able to lose $70,000 less during the most recent summer semester than the previous year. “I’m hoping we can continue down throughout the year,” Flipse continued, “We can still provide some services at reduced hours.”
The Highland’s other big week-day draw, their 25-cent wing special on Wednesday nights, will most likely be kept even though it’s a “no-match, money-losing deal” according to Flipse. Just last year, Wednesday wing night was amended to require patrons to buy a drink along with their discounted wings.
If there is a special on Tuesday, Flipse says that it will no longer be at the two dollar price point since it doesn’t align with the pub’s sustainable strategy. “In five years the equipment is going to be replaced. If we break even on the sales, we still need to look at the need for replacing the equipment, so we need to look at it in a longer term”, said Flipse, “I’m thinking about how to rhyme three with Tuesday.”
When asked about why the The Highland’s UBC counterpart, The Pit, is able to provide more deals for their students, Flipse answered, “It is a more expensive school. As such the average income per client there is higher. Additionally, the wage they pay their staff is substantially lower. The average rates plus benefits for the employee here is about $20 per hour. The labour cost accounts for 60 percent of the overall cost.”
Flipse concluded: “I don’t want to make all our money from the students. That’s not the whole reason [for this change]. But we need to find the balance between providing service and being sustainable, and hopefully we can do it.”
The prices of many things on the menu have indeed changed in the past few years. Remeber the Canadian burger? It used to be twelve bucks and now everything is an add-on which brings the price of the same meal up several dollars. I understand the need for restructuring but honestly John, don’t outright lie about what’s been going on!