<p>"It’s not just drug stores that have boosted prices for grocery items, but also campus dining options at universities. Reader Bryan Carroll wrote an article about them for his school newspaper at Stonybrook University, The Statesman. On average, he found the food items from the campus commissary were a whopping 42 percent higher than local grocery stores.</p>
<p>In his article for the Statesman, Bryan Carroll writes that while strolling through the campus Student Activity Center he noticed that a half-gallon of milk was $3.37, while it could be had for $2.19 at a nearby Target. The perfect compliment to that beverage, Oreo double-stuff cookies, were $8.27 on campus, but only $2.50 at Target.</p>
<p>He continued his research and found that in surveying 26 different items at the Student Activity Center, they were, on average, 42 percent higher than what three local grocery stores were charging.</p>
<p>From a purely supply and demand standpoint, it makes sense. The store has a prime location for its target market and reduced competition. But it also takes advantage of harried and sleep-deprived students who may not have a car or time to go shopping at the local supermarket…"</p>
<p>Have any of you college students (or parents) noticed similarly high prices on campus?</p>
I have yet to step on a college campus that sold food at “normal” prices - in the US, at least. </p>
<p>High dining hall and cafeteria prices were one of the first things that surprised me when I arrived in the US. Back in Germany, universities are subsidizing food: all university affiliates can eat below market price and students (not staff!) get an additional discount. I guess the reasoning is that universities are there to provide services for their students, and full-time employees can afford a bigger food budget than cash-strapped students.</p>
<p>I had never bought any food item or drink on campus (I was a commuter). It was much cheaper to stop somewhere on the way to or from class, and I had better variety. However, what really annoyed me was that my last semester there my college forced a “commuter meal plan” on all commuters and I then had to pay a ridiculous amount of money (it was not optional) for food of lesser quality on campus. I certainly never spent anywhere <em>near</em> that much money on the food I bought off campus since I did not need lunch or dinner everyday depending on my schedule. I’d love to know how much money they made off of that. There were lots of students who lived very close to the school and could go home and eat for free between classes. I think it’s ridiculous what schools will do to get more money out of the students. Of course, the meal plans were expensive because the food was expensive, and even the vending machines (which were actually pretty rare around my campus) were price inflated.</p>
<p>I was actually talking about this a couple of days ago. My dorm has a convenient store on the first floor. It’s insanely overpriced! I bought one of those salad combo make it your self things that cost $9!!! At the supermarket it’s sold for $4.29. I had no choice because I was hungry, it was late and I had no car. So now I load up when I go home. It’s crazy how they charge us.</p>
<p>food prices at my community college’s cafeteria are still the same. However, chips and snacks in the vending machine have gone up 25 cents and pastries sold at the coffee cart near the student center are $2 instead of $1.75 now.</p>
<p>I have yet to see a college that sells ANYTHING at reasonable prices (bookstores, anyone?). </p>
<p>My old community college had a small bakery supplied by the culinary school. Everything was insanely cheap- most things were $0.25- $1.00. The cafeteria was pretty cheap too, and the Subway was…just another Subway (including the $5 deal). </p>
<p>At my new one, everything is crazy overpriced. A bag of chips is $3 (when in other places, it’s $1.50). I guess as long as they can get away with it, they’ll continue overcharging us broke students.</p>
<p>Haha, its generally agreed by every student at my school that you shouldn’t buy anything from the bookstore if you can avoid it. The prices are jacked up to an unbelievable price. This is the reason I think its ridiculous that freshman are required to live on campus and then can’t have a car to get off campus!</p>
<p>This is one of the many ways that colleges will try to get as much money out of you as possible. Some meal plans are up to $1500 or more per semester. That’s spending a LOT of money on food for a single person in a 3 or 4 month period of time!</p>
<p>Princess: Was your community college DVC? XD I remember that!</p>
<p>My uni has a Carls Jr on campus that is cheaper than most Carls Jrs I’ve been to (but they don’t have the 99 cent specials :(). Taco Bell is an outrageous ripoff!</p>
<p>Free market. The problem with competing systems is the calculation problem, the free market will always be more efficient at allocating resources than central planners, especially in the absence of price signals. If college food was distributed according to need and not on profit then we would risk some students starving to death. No one is stopping you from opening a quickie market across the street from the college or university and selling food for as high or low as you want. As college students we have the freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. The freeer the market, the freeer the people. If you want to send a clear, powerful message, boycott the university markets that overcharge you. Write a letter to your politicians. Demonstrate on public property. The sky is the limit, as long as you respect the individual property rights assured to us by a free and democratic republic that upholds the infallibility of the free market and capitalism. Greed is good. Get your piece of the pie.</p>
<p>"Greed is good. Get your piece of the pie. "</p>
<p>do you work on wall street?</p>
<p>On a college campus, there’s less supply and more demand. Therefore, a lot of students are willing to pay more for the convenience of grabbing food on campus. There’s your free market argument</p>
<p>maybe rising food price is attributed to increase in the student body</p>
<p>Yep. $2500 per semester meal plan, mandatory for freshman. 20 meals per week, 15 weeks, $2500. That’s more than $8 per meal if you make it to every meal, including getting up every Saturday at 8 o’clock for breakfast (no one does). In reality, most people have five or so meals left over at the end of every week, so it actually costs more like $10 for every meal you go to. It boggles my mind that I work part time in the dining hall and earn less than half as much as I spend in the dining hall every semester.</p>