TigerDeals sees large turnout in first event

“It was hopping,” Austin Jackson ’15, a member of the CCA committee, said.

Fruity Yogurt is one of a number of local businesses to participate in the new USG-run program. Carmina Mancenon ’14, the chairman of the CCA committee and founder of TigerDeals, said that the initiative’s goal is to create a more personal relationship between the student body and the world outside of the University by offering student discounts. The committee started approaching local merchants at the start of the spring semester, leading up to the first deal — with Fruity Yogurt — on March 26.

TigerDeals is modeled after Groupon, which, unlike the CCA committee, profits from discount negotiations. The short-term nature of TigerDeals’ discounts encourages businesses to agree to more substantial deals because it is less of a long-term commitment for them, Mancenon explained.

“It’s great on the students’ side,” she said. “TigerDeals facilitates excitement around venturing onto Nassau [Street] to pursue temporary, daily discounts.”

At this point, the CCA committee is in conversation with more than 20 businesses and has signed contracts with at least half of them. So far, not a single business that the committee has reached out to has refused outright to participate in TigerDeals, according to Mancenon.

“Some are new and want to introduce themselves to students, while others have been slow on business recently,” she said, “The one factor they have in common, however, is that they all want to get to know students and build better relationships with us.”

Participating merchants currently include Uncle Louie G’s, Teresa Caffe, Chazmatazz Formalwear, Au Courant Opticians and J. Crew. Jackson said the initiative sought to strike deals with shops both familiar and unfamiliar to students.

Jenny Chen, the owner of Fruity Yogurt, said she was was “really happy” about the outcome because Monday is typically a slow day. Fruity Yogurt has been selling its product at half price every Monday since.

Not only have CCA committee members been on the ground negotiating bargains with local shopowners, but they have also been building a considerable online presence. Each committee member administers the TigerDeals website, deals.tigerapps.org, which Jackson created along with the Facebook page, USG TigerDeals.

Every Sunday, the committee distributes a newsletter detailing recent agreements. On Tuesday, the committee began an email-subscription list through which students may receive TigerDeals updates daily or weekly. Jackson said that he was surprised by the attention TigerDeals has received online.

TigerDeals also seeks to set itself apart from Princeton Plus, which USG president Bruce Easop ’13 called “an old USG program.” Princeton Plus was instituted in 2007 and lists independent discounts for Princeton students at local shops on the USG website.

“Since the listing is hard to find, many students don’t know about these discounts,” Mancenon said. “Some are even inactive.” The remaining Princeton Plus discounts will be consolidated into the new TigerDeals program.

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Carly Paris ’14 said she has not yet taken advantage of TigerDeals but added that she believes it’s a great idea. “Personally, I don’t buy food or other things on Nassau Street often because I like to save my money, and I can eat for free on campus,” she said. “But now that there are discounts, I will be more likely to make the trip up to Nassau Street every once in a while to buy things — probably food.”

Mancenon said that she believes that TigerDeal’s launch is “opportune.”

“Many of the shops said they had always been thinking about how best to reach out to the student body,” she said. “Many employees also commented on how much they love seeing Princeton students.”