EATERIES IN

BITS GOA
 A DETAILED REPORT ON

“EATERIES IN BITS PILANI K. K. BIRLA

GOA CAMPUS”

PREPARED FOR:
PROF. PARICHAY PATRA
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

PREPARED BY:

ADITYA SHRIVASTAV 2018A4PS0570G

AGASTYA PATRI 2018B5PS0866G
AMAN BOMMENA 2018AAPS0605G
DEVANSH GUPTA 2018AAPS0275G
HARSH TALWAR 2018B4PS0046G
SANSKRITI UMA 2018A3PS0311G

In partial fulfilment of the requirements of BITS F112:

Technical Report Writing

April 2019
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all those who helped us all along the way
for the completion of this report. We owe our deep gratitude to our Instructor Prof. Parichay
Patra for his keen guidance, interest and valuable inputs for this report. We are also grateful for
his whole hearted cooperation and constructive criticism during the preparation of the report.

We are immensely indebted to our fellow college mates who took out an effort in sharing their
precious time to participate in our study, providing us with their vital response, and without
whose contribution this report could not have been successful.

Finally, we would like to thank the Instructor In-charge Prof. Basavadatta Mitra, for giving us
the opportunity to work on this report which gave us an insight and knowledge from various
perspectives and to understand the pulse of the campus.
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ABSTRACT

At a residential educational institution, eateries on campus are an inevitable part of a student’s

life at college. They are a socializing point for students where they discuss academics, sports
and every other aspect of life. They provide a chilling spot to the students after a tiring day at
college. Except this, it also provides a much-needed alternative food option which is extremely
necessary for the students, as they are staying away from home. To ensure that this segment of
the campus functions well, regular checks and reports must be made on them. Our survey and
report includes the introduction to the different eateries on campus. Through this report we
explored different aspects such as questions on student’s choice of eateries, their approximate
daily expenditure on food, their payment methods, their reviews on hygiene and their
recommendations to improve the eateries on campus. In order to achieve the objectives of this
report we reached out to ground zero level to ask questions personally with the workers of the
eatery. Essentially this report gives a comprehensive view of opinions of present residents in
BITS Goa Campus which in turn would help in deciding the future trends for improving the
eateries.
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 FIGURE 1: Picture of Food King

 FIGURE 2: Picture of Ice-n-Spice

 FIGURE 3: Picture of Café Coffee Day (CCD)

 FIGURE 4: Bar graph depicting opinion of students on the factors which affect their
choice while selecting an eatery

 FIGURE 5: Pie chart depicting average amount of money spend by students in the
eateries in a week

 FIGURE 6: Pie chart depicting the most preferred mode of payment in the eateries

 FIGURE 7: Pie chart depicting the number of times student visits an eatery in a week

 FIGURE 8: Pie chart depicting the most preferred eatery in the campus

 FIGURE 9: Bar graph depicting opinion of students on the hygiene and sanitation
conditions of each eatery in the campus

 FIGURE 10: Bar graph depicting opinion of students on the taste of food items of
each eatery in the campus

 FIGURE 11: Pie chart depicting the opinion of students on the need to have more
eateries in the campus
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments….............................................................................................i
Abstract… ............................................................................................................ ii
List of Illustrations… ......................................................................................... iii

1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 1

2. Eateries: Introduction ....................................................................................... 3

2.1. Ice-n-Spice ......................................................................................... 3
2.2. Food King ......................................................................................... 3
2.3. Institute Cafeteria… .......................................................................... 3
2.4. Gajalaxmi Snacks…...........................................................................4
2.5. Sub-spot… ......................................................................................... 4

3. Factors Affecting Choice of Eateries ............................................................... 5

3.1. Proximity........................................................................................... 5
3.2. Affordability ......................................................................................5
3.3. Available Payment Options ............................................................... 5
3.4. Seating Capacity ................................................................................ 6
3.5. Closing Time ..................................................................................... 6

4. Payment Habits… .............................................................................................. 7

4.1. Expenditure ........................................................................................ 7
4.2. Mode of Payment… ........................................................................... 8

5. Trends/ Students’ Outlooks… ........................................................................... 9

5.1. Frequency of visits to an eatery… ....................................................... 9
5.2. Most preferred eatery ......................................................................... 10
5.3. Hygiene And Sanitation… ................................................................. 11

6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 12

7. Recommendations… ........................................................................................... 14

8. List of References… ............................................................................................ 15

9. Bibliography ......................................................................................................... 16

10. Appendix ............................................................................................................... 17

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1. INTRODUCTION

Food eateries in campus have major role in a student’s life. It seems as a perfect place to hang
out with friends after all the tiring classes. It helps students to avoid the repetitive menu and
tasteless meals of the messes. The need of 3500 students in BITS Pilani – Goa is satisfied by 6
such eateries spread across the campus. All cuisines ranging from household dishes like rice,
dal and chapatti to continental dishes like burgers, noodles and sandwiches to different
beverages like coffee, shakes and freshly-made juices are available here.

The main objectives of this report are – to recognize and give in-depth analysis of the factors
which affects the choice of eatery, to cite the hygiene and sanitation conditions pertaining to
how food is prepared and served, to discuss taste, quality and the most preferred eatery of the
students and to explain the expenditure of students on food. This report brings out information
in a well organised manner which focuses on improving the standards of the eateries by
analysing and rating them based on several diversified parameters.

FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2

The report splits the subject into three main categories namely introduction about each eatery,
how student’s choice of eatery is influenced based on different parameters like variety, seating
capacity, proximity from hostels, affordability and available payment options and trends and
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students’ opinions on different eateries based on value for money, taste, and hygiene. After that
we analyse the dependency of students on these eateries for their meals based upon the average
number of times they visit and the average amount of money they spend in a week in these
food outlets. This report also highlights the issues pertaining to these and give corresponding
recommendations (solutions) to improve the present conditions. The report finally ends with
conclusion based on our overall analysis and understanding of the present scenario of the food
outlets in the campus.

The information used for the analysis in this report was collected through an extensive
questionnaire along with on-site research. The questionnaire was designed keeping in mind the
objectives of our report. It was circulated to among 500 students across campus out of which
116 students responded. It helped gauge the overall satisfaction of the students in BITS Goa
with the food outlets in the campus. On-site research provided information pertaining to the
time of establishment of the eatery, number of people working in each eatery, their working
timings, the modes of payment accepted by them, seating capacity, etc.
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2. EATERIES: INTRODUCTION

2.1. ICE-N-SPICE
Ice-n-spice is one of the prime eateries of the campus. It was established in 2010. It is
located in front of AH-1 hostel. Thus it is near to the academic building as well the A side
hostels. It has a staff of 6 members. On regular days it opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 11
p.m.

2.2. FOOD KING

Food King was founded by a BITS alumnus Sarathbabu Elumalai in 2006. In BITS Pilani
Goa Campus, it is located near the library and got established in 2015. It has a staff of 9
members. On regular days its working hours are 8:30 am – 2:00 am. Being close to library,
Food King remains highly popular among students for taking short brakes from studies
during exams.

2.3. INSTITUTE CAFETERIA

Institute Cafeteria, often abbreviated as IC is located in the basement of the academic
building. It is run by outsourced mess contractor named ‘Shetty Sons’ which is also
responsible for the running of A mess. It also consists of a Café Coffee Day (CCD) outlet
which provides students a variety of beverages like tea, hot and cold coffee, lemon tea,
different varieties of sandwiches, cup noodles, etc all at subsidised rates. It has the largest
seating capacity amongst all the eateries.
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2.4. GAJALAXMI SNACKS

It is located in front of AH-8 hostel, near the A mess. It is one of the eateries where you
can get comfort food. This eatery is popular among the A-side students, the reason being
its presence on the A-side and proximity to A-side hostels. One can get a variety of egg
based dishes here.

2.5. SUB-SPOT
Sub-spot is one of the latest additions in the list of eateries in the campus. It is an initiative
of the CSA. It was opened in January 2019. It is located near the Computer Centre. The
major reason it got opened is its proximity from D-side. One of the other reasons for its
establishment is it being a replacement for the eatery ‘Monginis’ which once used to be at
the same place.

FIGURE 3
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3. FACTORS AFFECTING CHOICE OF

EATERY

3.1. PROXIMITY
Proximity is one of the major factors in deciding our choice of eatery with a 68.1% of the
responses in favour. During the mid-semester exams and the end semester exams, Food King
and Ice-n-spice are the top choices to take a quick break as they are located quite close to the
library. On the other hand, Gajalaxmi Snacks is quite far off, located deep in the A side. So,
most of its customers are only from the A side, and hence is ranked quite low in preferred
eatery list, despite having a reasonable price ratio.

3.2. AFFORDABILITY
Affordability is, unsurprisingly, the most important factor in deciding the preferred choice of
eatery. 72.4% percent of the total study in agreement (as shown in the graph) depicts that prices
of food items plays an important role in choosing the eatery. Most of the food prices ranges
from 40-80 rupees, hence giving quite an appeal. But different variety of food have different
reactions from students. Due to high prices of food articles at Sub-spot, it remains quite low in
the preferred eateries list. The coffee served in the subsidised café coffee day is only 10/- and
is worth every penny. But the Maggi served in almost any eatery is 25/- which is basically a
12/- packet of Maggi boiled and served, which hardly requires any effort. Nevertheless, the
prices are quite reasonable. All industrial goods such as soft drinks and chip packets are sold
at retail prices.

3.3. AVAILABLE PAYMENT OPTIONS

A student might choose an eatery also depending on the modes of payment available there;
albeit this does not play a major role in that choice, especially when compared to the reasons
listed above. Only 29.3% people feel that their choice of eatery depends on the available
payment options. Eateries where a student can use a UPI service, like Google Pay or Paytm are
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more likely to be visited by a student, as all that is required to complete a transaction is a phone.
This is evident from the fact that some students avoid going to Gajalaxmi Snacks due to the
non-acceptance of card payment there.

3.4. SEATING CAPACITY

Seating capacity seems to play a role in why someone might select an eatery, but only a minor
one, especially relative to the other reasons listed above, as joints like Food King, the Institute
Cafeteria and Sub-spot demand attention with their abilities to host larger groups. Their
decision to go a particular eatery is affected by the seating capacity for only 19% people as
per our survey.

3.5. CLOSING TIME

The overall preference of an eatery is greatly affected by its closing time. During the later
hours of the day, eateries like Food King and Ice-n-Spice are flocked by students (especially
just before and during exams) along with the Night Canteens which are the clear choice of
most, if not all the students. Food King is the clear favourite of the students because they
operate till very late in the night, which is a boon for the more nocturnal people of our
campus. In addition, the eateries prove to be a social hub, which makes it a favourite.

FIGURE 4
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4. PAYMENT HABITS

4.1. EXPENDITURE
While eateries do offer delicious and quick service which is often very appealing compared to
the food served in the mess, every person has a limit on how much he or she spends on eatery
food. According to our survey, 30.2% people spend more than Rs 300 per week and 21.6%
spend between Rs 200-300/- per week which signifies that a large chunk of students are ready
to spend money to get good, tasty food. These students often skip meals in mess and end up
eating unhealthy, non-nutritious food. Among the rest, 31.9% students spend between Rs 100-
200/- per week and finally 16.4% spend less than Rs 100/- per week.

FIGURE 5
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4.2. MODE OF PAYMENT

Mode of payment is one of the most deciding factors for the success of an eatery. It really does
make a difference in whether they accept only in cash or do they accept all kind of other
payments such as debit card and UPI (Unified Payment Interface). Any eatery with all three
forms of payment options is guaranteed to have an edge over its rivals. For instance, let us take
Gajalaxmi snacks. Gajalaxmi snacks only accepts cash payment and UPI. Its location coupled
with their inability to accept debit card transactions makes it save quite a low spot in popularity
among students. While Food King does accept card transactions, they don't do UPI which
causes a few problems for students. Rest of the eateries accept all three forms of payment
options. 20.7% of students’ preferred mode is UPI transaction while 27.6% prefer cash
payments. Card transactions tops the chart with an overwhelming 51.7% of students preferring
it. This is also probably why Gajalaxmi snacks suffer with such low popularity while Food
King is barely affected.

FIGURE 6
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5. TRENDS/ STUDENTS’ OUTLOOK

5.1. FREQUENCY OF VISITS TO AN EATERY

 Our survey clearly showed how the on-campus students largely depend on the eateries
inside the campus. About 33.6% of the students visit one or the other eatery everyday
on campus. About 24.1% said that they visit eateries 4-5 days a week and around
22.4% said that they visit eateries 2-3 days a week.

 This inclination can be because of the subsidized cost of the food items.
A CCD coffee can be as cheap as Rs.10 on campus whereas the same product costs
around Rs.50 outside.

 Another reason for such results may be the need for change from the regular food
which is served in the three messes on campus. Since most of the students on campus
are staying away from home, a desire for good quality food is inevitable and these
eateries play a decent role to crave these desires.

FIGURE 7
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5.2. MOST PREFERRED EATERY ON-CAMPUS:

 Our survey included asking people their preferred eatery on-campus. Food King
amongst them emerged to be the most preferred eatery on-campus with 31.9% votes,
closely followed by Ice-n-spice with 28.4% votes. The close competition between the
two is because of similar pricing, similar menu, etc. Both are symmetrically located
on campus with Ice-n-spice being on the A-side and Food King on the C-side of the
campus.

 Our survey showed that only 18.1% people preferred the Institute Cafeteria (I.C). This
can be attributed to the higher prices and a bit delay in the serving time. Still, people
prefer it because of its location, since it is not an outdoor cafeteria it remains a bit
cooler and it thus has a better environment throughout the day.

 The latest eatery, Sub-spot is preferred by about 7.8% of the students. This low
percentage can be attributed to the fact that it is a very new eatery and would take
time to develop and adjust according to the demands of the students.

FIGURE 8
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5.3. HYGIENE AND SANITATION:

Our survey asked the students to rate the eateries on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst
and 5 being great, on the basis of hygiene and sanitation:

 ICE-N-SPICE:

Maximum students rated it 2 or 3, and a good number of students rated it 4, showing that it is
an average eatery in terms of cleanliness and hygiene.

 FOOD KING:

The average rating for Food-King lied between 2 and 3. But it is important to note that around
20% rated, clearly showing that the administration should improve the sanitation at Food-King.

 INSTITUTE CAFETERIA:

This eatery was rated highly. Most of the students rated it 4 showing that they are happy with
the hygiene at the cafeteria. A lot of professors also come here for having snacks and hence a
high standard of hygiene is maintained here.

FIGURE 9
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CONCLUSION

 Given the campus sample space, 33.6% of the students go to an eatery everyday while
24.1% of the students go to an eatery 4-5 times a week. A majority of students going
on a regular basis to eateries makes us infer that going to an eatery is an integral part
of a student’s daily routine in college.

 We see that a majority of students (i.e. 51.7%) prefer to pay through card at these
eateries as it seems to be the convenient means of payment. Less preference is given
to payment through UPI is because of the network connectivity issues at the location
of a number of eateries. While in case of cash payment is the difficulty of carrying
much of it at once. Also the fear of losing the cash at once makes it a less preferable
mode of payment.

 We also see that 72.4% of students consider ‘affordability’ as one of the major factors
affecting one’s choice of eatery. ‘Proximity from hostel’ and ‘variety of food’ both
have got equal importance in choosing the eatery (with 68.1% choosing it). Factors
like Payment options and seating capacity don’t play big roles as these aren’t the
major contributors in the factors deciding the choice of eatery.

 Sanitation has emerged as a prime area of concern amongst the students. The average
rating given to most of the eateries in terms of cleanliness and sanitation infers that a
majority of students feel that every eatery in the campus should raise their level of
cleanliness while cooking and serving food.

 Taste plays a vital role in deciding whether the eatery will gain custoemers or not. In
our survey we found that 42.2% of total students taking the survey gave a rating of 4
to Institute Cafeteria on the basis of taste. The same rating was given by 39.6% and
37.9% of students to Ice-n-spice and Food King respectively. Subspot got the worst
rating 1 by 17.9% of the students while only 25.8% of the students gave a 4 rating to
it.
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FIGURE 10

 Food King comes out to be the most preferred eatery closely followed by Ice-n-Spice.
It can be inferred that both of these eateries stand almost equally on various
paramaters such as affordability, quality, variety of food served. Being at a prime
location in campus also help them to lure a number of customers.

 With 64.7% votes from the students, we can conclude that a big majority of students
want new eateries to get opened in campus. The reason behind this major support is
the want for newer food items that are not available on-campus. In the survey we also
found out that 12.1% of the students don’t really feel the need for more eateries in
campus while 23.3% of students are unsure about it.

FIGURE 11
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RECOMMENDATIONS

In our report we analyzed the different eateries in the campus on several different factors like
hygiene, value for money, variety, seating capacity, taste, etc. Here are some recommendations;
few of them are provided by the students as part of our questionnaire while some others are
based upon our own analysis and understanding:

 Linking the payment to SWD so that payment can be made directly through ID cards.
 Increasing the variety offered by the eateries by bringing in new cuisines like pasta,
pizza, waffles, chaat center, etc.
 Improving the hygiene at the eateries by restricting stray dogs near the eateries.
 Periodic pest controls should be made mandatory to overcome the problem of flies
and rodents.
 Periodic checks by the Food and Drug Administration Officer of the District should
be conducted at on-campus eateries.
 Payment via debit/credit card at Gajalaxmi Snacks should be accepted.
 Formation of a student committee (which can be a part of CSA) to supervise and
manage the eateries.
 The eateries should be subsidized and more eateries should be opened. This will
improve the competition and further reduce rates. The eateries should present their
rates to the administration and those rates should be approved the administration and
CSA body. When a particular eatery increases the rates of its items, the administration
and CSA should be notified. This will keep the eateries under constant checks.
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LIST OF REFERENCES

 “Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.” Wikipedia, 9 Apr. 2019,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birla_Institute_of_Technology_and_Science,_Pilani.
Accessed 15 Apr. 2019.

 “4 YEARS A SLAVE ?” BITSHerald, 20 July 2018,

http://bitsherald.org/2018/07/20/4-years-a-slave/. Accessed 16 Apr. 2019.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBSITES:
 http://www.bitsadmission.com/
 https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/Goa/CampusFacilities
 https://www.quora.com/Could-someone-tell-me-about-the-eateries-available-on-campus-
at-BITS-Goa
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birla_Institute_of_Technology_and_Science,_Pilani
 https://www.shiksha.com/college/bits-goa-kk-birla-campus-bits-pilani-goa-campus-goa-
other-23311/reviews
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APPENDIX

FOR BITS SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE GOA STUDENTS

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