To increase customer traffic, Ramtech moves to the Campus Store in the Memorial Union. PHOTO CREDIT: Siobhan Richards
The University of Rhode Island’s main place for technological and computer help recently moved a short distance.
RamTech Sales and Service used to be found on the first floor of the Memorial Union, in its own separate area, but now is at a new location, right inside the Campus Store. The move happened during summer 2020, and RamTech’s new home is fully operational, providing all the same services it did prior to moving.
“The main reason for the relocation was actually increasing customer traffic,” Paul Whitney, the Campus Store’s administrator, said.
According to him, now people can come to the Campus Store and RamTech in the same place.
RamTech now being in the Campus Store allows customers to buy the electronics they may need while shopping around for other items throughout the store, according to Memorial Union Director Carl Stiles.
“Maybe you’re waiting for something to be fixed or wandering around the store and you find a sweatshirt you like,” Stiles said. “It’s an opportunity to cross-collaborate.”
When the Campus Store and RamTech were in separate locations, Whitney said if a student was looking for a new laptop or they needed something repaired, they would go straight to RamTech and not necessarily stop in the store, but now, they are all in the same place.
The daily operations of RamTech are “pretty much the same,” according to Whitney. Even though he said it is a little bit smaller in size, most of the fixtures that are in the new location are from the old one.
Stiles said that one thing that did change was a slight addition to their hours of operation. RamTech used to be open Monday through Friday, but now it follows the hours of the Campus Store.
“In the Campus Store, we have Saturday hours so we actually give greater access to students on weekends,” Stiles said.
When the move originally happened, Stiles said it wasn’t too difficult for students to adjust to the relocation. He said that there was signage put up to redirect students, and people quickly learned where it was.
Right now, the old space is being used as what Whitney called a “flex space.” He said the space is a place to hold things such as caps and gowns and large computer or clothing orders.
With a renovation of the Memorial Union coming soon, there aren’t any solid plans for the old RamTech location quite yet.
“We’re going to be doing a phased renovation, which means that sections of the building will be closed at a time,” Stiles said.
He said that he is going to have to find some space for offices during that time, so that space could come in handy to relocate different services for short periods of time.
Whitney also said that the first floor is a retail space, so the space could eventually have something to do with food or retail, but there are no solid plans quite yet, and the space could be used for a lot of different offerings.
Overall, even though RamTech has found a new home, it is still the same service that it was before. Stiles said that RamTech continues to serve students and the greater URI community.