By Christopher Demarcus (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: September 18, 2013
The line at Tim Hortons is too long. The sole cafeteria barista is busy juggling customers and too many vanilla lattes. So why not head over to The Press Café in the bookstore for a quick cup of joe?
The Press Café is open from 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday. New weekend hours are Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., making it the only food and beverage service open Sunday on campus. This is great for students who are looking for coffee when Tim Hortons and the cafeteria are closed.
However, there has been widespread confusion among students when they find the café unstaffed. During its open hours at 2:30 on Friday, the separate entrance to The Press Café was locked and students were redirected to the bookstore entrance. Once inside, the café area was empty, with no coffee brewed.
“While the bookstore is open the café register is closed. … To make an order you need to ask an employee in the bookstore area, not in the café,” a bookstore employee explained.
Many of the students who utilize The Press Café and its attached convenience store are residents of Baker House. Non-resident students are drawn to the café during book-buying season or for special events, but most prefer to stick to services that are easier to access while moving between classrooms.
The Press Café is operated by the university independently from the multi-national corporation Sodexo which has the monopoly on food services on campus.
“The Press Café is part of the bookstore, which is a business unit of [UFV] ancillary services. Sodexo reports to ancillary services; we operate independently of each other, but cooperate to provide food services on campus,” bookstore manager and director of ancillary services Cameron Roy explained.
Sodexo sells Starbucks brand coffee in the cafeteria and Tim Hortons brands in G building. In contrast, the Press offers a higher quality of products than the other food options on campus. They offer organic coffee by local roaster Salt Spring Coffee from Richmond, BC. The space also provides a comfortable study space off the beaten path.
