Students have long supported adding a Culver’s location near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Concrete mixers and cheese curds continue to remain elusive for Badgers, though. Why?
A Culver’s spokesperson told The Daily Cardinal they are lacking “interest” from owner-operators for a State Street location.
“Currently, we do not have any owner-operators expressing interest in State Street as a potential location,” Eric Skrum said via email.
The company itself does not decide where locations are placed around the state, they said.
“Our restaurants are independently owned and operated, which means that we work with those individuals to determine the location where they would like to build their restaurant,” Culver’s explained. “While we offer guidance in terms of ideal locations, it ultimately is driven by the owner-operator.”
Student pushes for a Culver’s location aren’t new, but they have spiked in recent years.
On Sept. 18, UW-Madison parody Instagram account @badnewsbadgers created a satirical post about Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin’s plans to replace the Chadbourne dorm with a Culver’s. The post received over 3,000 likes.
District 8 Alder MGR Govindarajan took up the mission of bringing Culvers to UW-Madison recently, citing the cause as his “personal goal."
“I actually reached out to the regional real estate director for Culver’s over the summer to see if they’re interested in bringing a Culver’s close to campus,” he said in an Instagram story on Sept. 18. “They said no because of internal issues.”
Students were disappointed. UW-Madison sophomore Nick Fitt responded with a commonly used meme of Bucky Badger.
“[A State Street location would] be in a prime spot that gets a lot of traffic…at least during the academic year,” Fitt said. “As an in-state student, adding a Culver’s to State Street would help bring a little more Midwest culture to it.”
ButterBurger-loving students are excited about the possibility of a Culver’s on State Street. To make this goal a reality, though, they would have to convince an owner-operator to feel the same.
