The Out Back Shack to change its hours

The Out Back Shack will no longer be in operation until 8 p.m., which was effective January 16. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, unless it hosts an event, in which case the Shack will reopen to accommodate as such.

Operations manager Gary Deline says it made sense after seeing a decline in student attendance at the establishment after a certain time.

“We were finding there’s not as many students on campus after 6 p.m.,” he said. “We are going to shorten the hours so that we can use that money and labour elsewhere that will benefit the students in a better way.”

Deline says he had been tracking sales over the last three years and noticed that students weren’t staying late to grab a bite to eat.

“We noticed there’s a trend of more and more students leaving campus earlier in the day, which is still 4 or 5 in the evening, but once most students leave, we find a lot of them don’t return for dinner at a later hour,” he said. “Staying open until 8 p.m., we weren’t having a lot of students coming in for dinner at that time.”

“[Students have] either finished class, or they’ve already come and eaten dinner, or they’re just done class and they want to go home. Especially in the winter time, because after they’re done class, it’s already dark out at 6 p.m.”

Deline says that Oasis is the next viable option to grab a late dinner.