With the agreement of Our Mom’s Restaurant and Bar to accept Lion’s Lagniappe in November of last year, the number of Lagniappe vendors increased to 39. Installation was complete, and card services have been available since December.

Stefan Watts, manager of Our Mom’s, acknowledged that he has seen a minor increase in sales since accepting the card.

Watts explained that Our Mom’s chose to accept Lion’s Lagniappe as it is the official restaurant of university athletics.

“We also do a big student discount for them,” shared Watts. “So, we just decided to go ahead and take their Lion’s Lagniappe.”

Albertsons of Hammond is another local vendor that takes Lion’s Lagniappe. Kevin Brunelle, store director of the grocery store, was engaged in making the alternative available to university students three years ago. He has seen more of an increase in student traffic than in sales.

However, Brunelle noticed that the university students visiting the store were unaware about Lion’s Lagniappe.

“A lot of times when I talk to some of the college kids that come in here and I ask them about if they know about Lion’s Lagniappe, a lot of them don’t,” said Brunelle. “It’s a good thing, but I wish more of the kids knew about it, to be honest.”

Michelle Craig, manager of Pita Pit, expressed a similar sentiment. The restaurant comes across a range of one to 10 purchases with Lion’s Lagniappe daily.

“We definitely want to see more people using it,” said Craig. “Some literature on it, or a sign, or some kind of advertisement would be great. I’m sure a lot of students don’t know. If they do, that’s probably the reason not more people try to use this because they probably don’t know.”

Robin Parker, director of marketing and strategic services for Auxiliary Services, summarized the the difference between Lion’s Lagniappe another university money service, Cub Cash.

“Cub Cash is tied directly to meal plans and can only be used at campus dining facilities,” explained Parker. “Lion’s Lagniappe has nothing to do with meal plans and can be used all over campus to make purchases including dining facilities, the bookstore, the Document Source, the health center, the Pennington Center, residential laundry machines, the Student Union game room, copy machines and vending machines. Lagniappe is also accepted at a number of off-campus merchants.”

The idea of accepting Lion’s Lagniappe is spreading. Parker named another vendor that may be taking the card in the future.

“Burger King is a potential merchant for the program, but a final agreement has not been signed,” said Parker.

Lion’s Lagniappe can also be managed with the use of the Get Mobile app.

Businesses interested in accepting Lion’s Lagniappe may also contact Campus Card Operations and fill out the merchant request form to begin the process.