In the past year, several chain restaurants emerged on and around Green Street offering students, residents and campus staff diversity, but not necessarily with a local flair.

The influx of chain restaurants and the money that are drained out of the economy create challenges for local restaurants. This causes changes in sales, frequency of customer visits and items on the menu for a number of places in Campustown.

The Fat Sandwich Company, a chain restaurant that began in Norman, Okla., opened its doors in Champaign last October.

Despite being a little less than a year old, the restaurant touts its customer loyalty, said general manager Michael Campbell. He added that the customer response continues to be desirably high.

“We have a good response from our regulars,” Campbell said. “I could offhand name a dozen regulars. We have a great return rate. The kids seem to love it. We cater to a specific demographic.”

When it comes to spending money, he said students choose places to eat based on the environment, food and service.

Each morning chain restaurant Dunkin’ Donuts opens its doors to the aroma of steamed bagels from Howbowda Bagel Company and the ground coffee beans at Starbucks Coffee.

Dunkin’ Donuts primarily advertises through coupons, said manager Nirav Modi.

“We give coupons back to you so you can reuse them,” Modi said. “If you come back every day why would I take (the coupon) back?”

He said for approximately 40,000 students on campus, Dunkin’ Donuts mails out around 50,000 coupons. For the first week of school, people dress up as a donut and coffee and walk around Green Street to advertise the business.

Howbowda Bagel Company advertises primarily through word of mouth, said store owner Dustin Canter. Since the emergence of Dunkin’ Donuts and Panera Bread, there have been inevitable changes in how sales performance, he said. More than ever, technology plays a role in drawing attention to special deals in the store.

“With freshmen, I think the key is technology,” Canter said. “I’m not putting a lot of money into advertising. Everything is by word of mouth, which is definitely slower. Sometimes we may never capture the student population. What we’re working on is preordering: Internet ordering, iPhone ordering, text ordering and making a (specification) sheet for how we’re going to do that and see who wants to take a stab at working with us and creating Web editing software and keep updating our menu. Now Howbowda is on Twitter.”

Canter said he plans to sell 300 mugs for $9.99 each. Anytime customers bring in the mug, they can buy coffee, hot tea, soda and specialty drinks for $1.

There are unique specials on a day-to-day basis, Canter said. He added the people should be on the look-out for tweets on specials about Howbowda Bagel Company, including a special going on Monday.

If customers purchase any item in the story and say, “I love Howbowda Bagel” in front of the register, they will receive a free drink.

“We’re able to differentiate ourselves with steamed bagel sandwiches which are for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Canter said.

Another local restaurant, Zorba’s, which is a Greek gyro business, first opened in Campustown more than 30 years ago, said store owner Matt Mortenson.

The restaurant began as a Greek-oriented restaurant with a simple menu, which later turned into an Americanized semi-jazz club atmosphere, he said.

“(The restaurant) warps from a sandwich shop to a jazz club,” Mortenson said. “We have people from U of I, Chicago and even people from New York come.”

Since Zorba’s has been around for three decades, it mostly attracts University staff and people who work on campus, he added.

“We have a lot of regulars,” Mortenson said. “People in town come when students are gone.”

University alumni help the local businesses because they see familiar restaurants that have been around since the time they entered college.

“I had several people comment that they come to local restaurants so money stays in the community,” Mortenson added.

“They like to support local restaurants instead of chains. A lot of people come here to help us out. They like to see places like this stay. Alumni come back. We’re one of the only restaurants that have been here for a long time. People like coming back to see a place that was here when they went to school,” he said.