ASWSU’s Coffee Week starts Monday. 

WSU undergraduate students will have the opportunity to receive $2 off any drink from participating coffee shops. The discount does not include alcoholic beverages or food, said Fatimah Albaqshi, ASWSU director of community affairs.

Starting Monday, Pups & Cups, Manny’s Coffee House, Roost Coffee & Market, POPO, Neill’s Coffee & Ice Cream and Crybaby Café will each offer the discount to 50 students, she said. 

The limit of 50 students is for the entire week, and once a coffee shop reaches its maximum, the discount is over at that business for the week. Albaqshi said she plans to post when each shop reaches the limit.

Students will need to bring their CougarCard to receive the discount and will sign in using their name and WSU student ID number on the sign-in sheet available at each coffee shop, she said. 

The event is supposed to encourage students to get out into the community and switch up their normal study spot, Albaqshi said. 

“A lot of students go to coffee shops anyways to study on the regular and especially around dead and finals week,” she said. “I just thought it would be kind of a great idea for students to be like, ‘oh I’ve never heard of this coffee shop, let me try it out,’ or go to different ones every day to study and have a different space.”

Albaqshi organized the event after seeing the success of the recent ASWSU and GPSA Restaurant Week. She said she was also inspired by the Pullman Chamber of Commerce’s articles featuring different coffee shops around town. 

The student body plays a huge role in the Pullman community and as a result, it is important for small businesses to see support from WSU students, Albaqshi said. 

The event is the perfect way to begin testing out small businesses that students may not have heard of or had the opportunity to visit before, she said. 

ASWSU President Brian Patrick said he believes events like this one and Restaurant Week are especially important following the lack of customers local businesses experienced during the pandemic. 

It has been nice to see ASWSU help by creating incentives like these and encouraging students to try out new coffee shops, Patrick said. 

“Instead of having this big franchise that you go to like Starbucks, it kind of gives you more of that hometown feel,” he said. “You’re in Pullman for so long that you want to try and find those places where maybe you can go with friends and just hang out or go with friends and do homework, especially coming up to dead and finals week.”

Albaqshi said she hopes to receive good feedback from the event and plan a similar one in the future, potentially collaborating with different organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce.