Wright State University offers numerous employment opportunities for students, including the student-led and operated coffee location, ReyRey Cafe. Previously located in Rike Hall until its move in July of this year, some students remain curious about the reasoning behind the move to the Dunbar Library, and what will become of the previous space.
Reasons for the move and statistics since the relocation
Matt Grushon is the Director of Procurement and Contract Services. He has worked at WSU for 18 years and has been in the Purchasing Department since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grushon explained that his office works with the campus’s catering companies to provide the food that students eat daily on campus. This impacts the coffee shops and restaurants on campus, which partner with ReyRey to bring food and coffee to WSU students.
“We saw positive growth in the business that ReyRey was doing, and we wanted to continue to develop that,” Grushon said.
One way that Grushon and his teams saw potential for improvement was by expanding to a larger facility, with more room for storing products and making beverages.
“It was a little over a year ago that the decision was made to [move] the cafe out of Rike and over here; that move didn't actually happen till about July of this year. We asked Quest to go ahead and reopen this on their own in the interim, to make sure the equipment worked, make sure they knew form, function flow over here, so that when the students and the ReyRey operation over here, everything was working,” Grushon said.
By ensuring the equipment worked, Quest was testing whether the facility would be up and functioning when the student-led coffee location took over.
“Sales transactions are up like 27%. So, the individual counts of transactions are up, and then sales in terms of dollar amounts [are] similar, it's like 24% or 25% as well. Those are really encouraging numbers,” Grushon said.
With positive growth in numbers, Grushon expressed that he and his peers are pleased with the impact of this decision and its results so far.
Student opinions and polls
One thing that follows any change to the campus is an adjustment period, during which students express their opinions and growing pains.
In a social media poll posted to the Wright State Guardian’s Instagram, students were asked their feelings on the move and given four options to choose from about their feelings on it. The options were: “positive,” “negative,” “neutral” and “I’m new and I didn’t even know it moved,” and the survey received over a hundred votes.
The winning result was “negative,” receiving 48 votes, totaling 42% of the answers. In second place, “positive” won 28% of the votes with 32 voters. 27 votes for “neutral” put it at 24%. Only 5% of students chose that they were new.
Logan Dreyer is a sophomore at WSU, majoring in entrepreneurship. He serves as the Chief Marketing Officer for ReyRey Cafe.
“Now that we are in the library, we get much more traffic, so that means more engagement on social media. Doing Flavor Detective Fridays is a little harder because we rarely have time to film because of how busy we are,” Dreyer said.
Still, Dreyer finds time to do his job, tasked with the role of running the social media accounts for the student-led coffee shop.
Following the Guardian’s Instagram poll, a comment section was opened for students to share their thoughts on the move if they felt strongly enough.
“We are doing our best, we promise!” Dreyer replied, under ReyRey’s Instagram handle.
Many students responded as well, voicing opinions such as wishing the cafe opened earlier or voicing their confusion about others’ complaints on the move. However, one complaint seemed to recur.
“Rike Hall Lobby is now null and void. Used to be a spot students hung out at,” one student said.
With this sentiment coming up, the question of what WSU’s plans are for the space that previously housed the coffee shop, which now stands in the library.
The future of Rike Hall’s Lobby
Construction occurred in the space that previously housed ReyRey, building walls where there were previously coffee machines. The space is blank, making it look ready for something new.
Bob Mihalek is the Interim Director of Communications for WSU’s Office of University Communications and Marketing.
“There’s no news or update to share at this time. Without new information, the University does not have a comment to provide,” Mihalek said. “They do not have news to share about future plans for ReyRey Cafe's old space in Rike Hall.”
Overall, the statistics show that the move has been positive for ReyRey from a business standpoint. While some students are still adjusting, and the space in Rike Hall is in an unknown transitional period, the new ReyRey is doing well, so far.
