Students can take advantage of discounts at local stores ranging from the Promontory restaurant to Radio Shack through Student Government’s (SG) expanded student discount program this quarter, which includes new “Maroon Monday” deals.
New businesses on the expanded list include Cornell Cleaners, Radio Shack, Promontory, Bonne Santé Health Foods, Greenline Coffee, and more. Students can receive a 10–15 percent discount, depending on the business, by presenting a UCID and requesting the discount.
Maroon Monday discounts offer similar deals with often higher discounts, but are offered exclusively on Mondays, and the student must be wearing maroon at the time.
According to Kenzo Esquivel, SG’s community and government liaison and a second-year student, the discounts are meant to benefit both UChicago students and local businesses. “[We’re] trying to get students to try things that just aren’t your typical options that are right here on campus, and also to really help out, perhaps getting more student and UChicago traffic into some of the local businesses,” Esquivel said.
SG recruited the Promontory, Bergstein’s Deli, and Greenline Coffee to the program and worked with the Office of Civic Engagement’s UChicago Local campaign for the second round of persuading businesses to join, according to Esquivel. UChicago Local is an initiative by the University to actively support local residents and businesses through the creation of job opportunities, business showcases, and partnerships like this discount program.
“Their main issue was publicizing that they’d made these discounts available to students, and our issue was that [the businesses] weren’t talking to us,” he said. “And we just kind of helped with the advertising portion.”