With a nod to Williams, who was seated placidly at the cash register, Durham said that he would miss the “friendly staff” of Celeris.

Harris said that the Quad community has begun looking into the option of opening a student-run food operation.

“My vision would be a much smaller inventory and a student-run organization with student wages. Part of the problem of Celeris being open 42 hours a week is that the costs are too great,” Harris said. “For this to work in the future, students will have to run it.”

Mayer said that HUDS would support the endeavor.

“If Cabot House wants to run the convenience store or a grill they certainly can.  It’s their choice and HUDS, of course, would support them,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Harris said that Hilles could potentially house a new Quad convenience store.

“Whatever the new Hilles is going to contain, I would hope this would be one of the things they would find room for,” he said. “I think it would have a much better chance of succeeding than something in the basement of Cabot.”

—Staff writer Elena P. Sorokin can be reached at sorokin@fas.harvard.edu.