A significant expansion in Dining Services' Merchant Off-campus Partners (MOPs) program will give students more incentive to go "cashless" this fall, as 11 new locations accept JumboCash for the first time.
A total of 18 off-campus restaurants and stores in the Medford/Somerville area now take JumboCash, a campus debit plan that allows students to associate money, or points, with their student identification cards.
Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos said this list of participants will only grow.
"I sent letters to over 100 businesses," Klos said. "Some jumped on board immediately, and others are taking some time to decide."
Nearby popular restaurants, including Pranzi's and Amelia's Kitchen, are included among the new establishments accepting points, as is Boston Avenue's Campus Mini Mart.
Five additional off-campus establishments have signed on to MOPs and are in the process of implementing the program, including the CVS in Davis Square.
Students can now use JumboCash in participating stores anytime to pay for take-out or dine-in charges, as well as delivery. Previously, students only had the option of using JumboCash for delivery orders during certain hours.
"Any time the business is open you can walk in, take out, order delivery; it's your choice," Klos said. "There are no restrictions on when you can use JumboCash."
Klos said that the expansion was made possible through the arrival at Tufts of Bb One, a payment transaction program run by Blackboard.
Using Bb One eliminates a cumbersome payment process that previously required merchants to mail paper receipts to Dining Services, according to Klos.
"In order for them to get paid they had to bring the receipts and we would sort through them," Klos said, adding that the system limited the number of businesses Dining Services could accommodate.
"Because it was a manual process and we have limited staff, we set the number of restaurants at seven. That's about all we could handle," she said.
The new system features lower commission rates and a more streamlined process that allows payment to go straight to the participating establishment's bank account, increasing the program's appeal to merchants.
"We dropped the commission rates by about half, and they [get] paid within two days, so they were very happy," Klos said.
The new program has been well received by merchants both new and returning, she said.
The Tufts Community Union Senate's Services Committee had circulated surveys to determine which restaurants were favorites among students to be added to the program, Klos said. She specifically targeted restaurants that fared well in these surveys for addition to the MOPs system.
Amelia's Kitchen Manager Delio Susi said that the new system, which arrived one week ago at the eatery, was simple to install and beneficial to all involved.
"It's more of a convenience for the Tufts kids and more of a convenience for us, as well," Susi said.
Stephen Bates owns the Medford restaurant Pranzi's, which began accepting JumboCash last month. He expects participation in the MOPs program to improve business.
"We've been trying to get on [the program] for a while now," he said. "The kids seem to like it, and we've been starting to see a lot of people come in now that they know we're here."
Dining Services hopes to help the participating restaurants and stores reach out to the student body on campus and promote their offerings, Klos said.
"They've committed to providing a service to the community, so we'd like to feature them," she said.
