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Supermarket in Erasmus Building

24 Oct 2016

Finally, the supermarket on campus will go ahead, apart from a couple of permits still needed. It will be a Spar, and it will be located on the first floor of the Erasmus Building. And there will be more changes: a copyshop will be opened in the downstairs lobby and the Refter will turn into a food court.

The supermarket will be opened in the newly decorated lobby of the Erasmus tower, where the Honours Acedamy is located right now. Similar shops – under the name Spar university already exist in Delft, Eindhoven, Rotterdam and at the VU Amsterdam. One special thing about the Spar in Nijmegen is the fact that it is not allowed to sell alcohol. This also applies after 16.00, when other places, like the Cultuurcafe, are allowed to sell it.

‘It is to check if alcohol is not sold earlier on the day’, says Gusta Cirkel, director at Facilities & Services. ‘We think it is better to not sell alcohol at all.’ The operator does not have problems with that, says Cirkel. ‘In shops like that, alcohol is not a very big part of the revenue.’

Cirkel points out that the university also makes other deals with Spar, for example about the type of promotion it uses and the products it sells. ‘Sustainability is very important for us, so you will see that in the shop.’ Prize stunts like ‘kiloknallers‘ (big amounts of meat for low prices) and ‘plofkippen‘ (chickens that are extremely fattened, up to a point that it makes them cripple and sick) are out of the question.

sparMore customers
Up until now, commercial parties have never been welcome on campus, because Facilities & Services – operator of all hospitality on campus – has to keep its own head above the water. Fear of competition has disappeared, on the contrary: Cirkel expects that the new parties will attract a new group of people, and that that will also help Facilities & Services. ‘Our group of costumers is quite stable, we expect even more people when new parties arrive.’

Another part of the plan is the Refter, which will be completely renewed, to open in August 2018 as food court: a more fancy restaurant with multiple outlets. There will be room for two commercial companies as well. Whether that will be a pizza place, a salad bar or something else has not been decided yet. Cirkel: ‘We will listen to the wishes of students and employees, and of course environment and sustainability will also play a role here, so we also think about something vegetarian or vegan.’

The new centre square is a merger of the current Erasmusplein and Pieter Bondamplein, including the newly decorated Erasmus lobby. There, a copyshop will be opened. The already renewed Cultuurcafe and bookshop Roelants are already contributing to the new square.

Spar Netherlands does not confirm the opening of the shop yet. It still has to wait for the final permits.

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