You may have heard numerous complaints in the past few weeks about the wait times for food on campus. Brick City Deli, the food truck and deli, has had extremely long waits the first few weeks of school. The longest I’ve waited was two hours and 38 minutes. From managing online and mobile orders to employee shortages, there have to be explanations as to why you must wait so long to receive your meal.
For starters, this is the first year Brick City in Jefferson Market is accepting meal swipes from students. This is causing a huge influx of people wanting to eat there. On top of that, online mobile orders seem to be coming in non-stop. If you go to the deli, you’ll see the order machine printing orders constantly. I feel for the workers. It must be extremely overwhelming to be making food while watching hundreds of orders come in.
A common theme among customers who are willing to wait at the deli for food is that it’s the highest quality food you can purchase with a meal swipe. The cheapest meal plan on campus for all undergraduate students is the Traditional 14 at $2,703 per semester. Students with this meal plan have access to Nelson Court and the District on West Green, the Brick City and Hungry Cat on-campus food trucks and the deli in Jefferson Market. However, the Flex 14 meal plan costs $3,684 per semester. With this plan, there is access to everything the Traditional 14 offers, with the addition of Earl’s Coop and 225 flex points to be used like cash at the markets and coffee shops on campus. Students with a flex plan have access to various fresh foods from the market, while the main source of fresh food for those with a meal plan comes from the deli.
From a customer perspective, my friends and I have had various experiences with these wait times. For example, a friend of mine ordered online for pickup at noon. She arrived to pick up her food, but it was not ready until 12:21 p.m.. Another friend of mine was even 20 minutes late to her class due to the wait time for her food from the deli. This is hard to get around because, as students, we need to be able to eat, and there is only so much free time in the day to do so.
I believe the biggest issue with Brick City’s system is the online mobile orders. Everyone assumes the wait in person will be very long, so they order online. Unfortunately, when they are overwhelmed with online orders, they stop taking in-person orders. This creates even more issues for people trying to eat. The only option at that point is to order online and likely wait over an hour to get your food. Most people do not have enough free time in their day to wait an hour for a sandwich.
Personally, I have waited 50 minutes to order, and then another 30 minutes for my food. I do this solely because I believe it is the best-tasting food I can get with my meal plan, and it’s always fresh.
I think students would agree Brick City is worth the wait, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Everyone on campus has a different schedule full of classes, clubs and extracurriculars. So, if you want some Brick City in between classes, maybe place your order at least an hour in advance and give at least a 15 minute window of extra time in case they are behind on orders.
My biggest tips for eating at the deli are as follows. First, if you are in a hurry, get a cold sandwich; it will not take as long as a hot one. Second, order online; if you go to order in person, you are at risk of it not taking in-person orders at the moment. Lastly, have patience; I know this is obvious, but patience is the key to eating at Brick City.
I hope that as we get further into the semester, the wait times will die down once everyone figures out the system a bit more. But for now, if you are looking for a fresh, delicious deli sandwich, be prepared to wait.
Rylee Drees is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Rylee about their column? Email them at rd198224@ohio.edu
