Boloco, a chain of restaurants that prides itself on providing a fresh twist to classic burrito cuisine, is seriously considering closing its Tufts branch located on Boston Avenue, the company announced this month.
Of the chain's 16 locations throughout the New England area, the Tufts eatery is the only store in danger of failing. Many of those branches cater to college campuses.
"The danger is really close. It's imminent," Boloco marketing manager Sam Chud told the Daily. "If we have to close a store, we'll take a hit on the bottom line, but it's sort of the personal hit that's harder to take."
The next two to three weeks during which Tufts students are still on campus will prove crucial for the branch, according to CEO and founder John Pepper. The final decision on the store's closure will come in the middle of next month.
The store has charted low sales since its opening in November 2006. The worsening economy, though, has pushed it into financial jeopardy.
"We've come down to our last resorts," Anthony DiBella, the general manager of the Boston Avenue location, told the Daily. "Being a newer restaurant, you're looking for big-time sales and growth ... After the economy hit, it's done an extra heavy toll."
To stave off closing, the branch has made an effort this semester to generate more student business and make the store more customer-friendly.
Customers now have the option of using free wireless Internet access, lounging on new couches and enjoying student-produced photography hanging in the restaurant. The store has also tried out staying open later, until 2 a.m. on some recent weekend nights; Boloco is currently determining whether those hours are profitable.
Most notably, the branch has cut prices by nearly 25 percent. The price changes went into effect several weeks ago and were only implemented at the Tufts location.
"There's no other burrito place you can walk in for $4.19 and have us bring it to you," DiBella said.
Many of the changes have come about as a result of a small group of Tufts students who have provided Boloco with suggestions for improving the restaurant.
"What we wanted to do at a lot of our college-campus stores is get in touch with students, find a way to go from an outsider to an insider," he said. "I knew I had to get that student perspective."
Sophomores Jared Glick and Danny Moll -- two of the students collaborating with Chud -- agreed that Boloco had lacked marketing toward students until they were brought on in an advisory role.
"There's a good amount of Tufts students who like Boloco and are interested in their food, but just don't realize that they're struggling," Moll said.
While the store has seen an increase in customers as a result of the price cut and other initiatives, Chud said, overall revenue has not gone up.
"We've definitely seen some improvements, but not enough to justify staying," he said.
The Boston Avenue branch marks the second Boloco store in the area that has suffered from low customer interest. Another store, located between Davis and Porter Squares, closed last July. It was the first store to close in 12 years, Pepper told the Daily.
Though Pepper and the rest of the Boloco personnel remain unsure as to why these two branches in particular have done so poorly, he said Tufts' Merchant Off-campus Points (MOPs) program has contributed to the Boston Avenue location's problems, which offers limited accessibility to students.
MOPs allows students to use JumboCash to purchase food from local restaurants, but the system only applies to deliveries after 7 p.m. on weeknights and 1 p.m. on weekends.
Additionally, 15 percent of every MOPs sale goes back to Tufts, which Pepper said stood out among the 12 college-merchant partnership program to which Boloco belongs.
"Fifteen percent is the highest of any college we do," Pepper said, "and Tufts has the least access."
Pepper added that a key component of the store's success involves reaching out to the Medford community at large, which the Tufts branch has neglected in the past. The store has since reached out in support of local establishments, like the Medford Historical Society, but it remains to be seen whether this will bring success.
Chud agreed that the local community remains an untapped resource.
"Our two stores have been almost better suited for the communities around than for the student population, but we haven't approached them in the right way," he said. "We need to do more to reach out to the community, especially the high-school and the younger students."
DiBella has donated free burritos about once a week to student groups who are hosting events in an effort to bolster relations and potential business.
The small number of donations, DiBella said, has not affected the store's bottom line, but the branch's generous business model could have some backlash.
"It could sort of dilute the value," Pepper said. "Doing it too much has consequences as well."
Boloco management plans to continue hanging on for at least a few more weeks and seeing how the Boston Avenue location's new initiatives pan out.
"With the price drop and with all the different efforts we're making to be part of the community, if after all of that, there's not really a sign of life," Pepper said, "it'd be difficult to stay when we're not in a place we're wanted."
