Since first stepping onto Loyola’s campus my freshman year, I have been unimpressed with the dining choices. The cost, lack of variety and surplus of fatty foods make eating on campus a difficult task for me.
I am now a sophomore and have had too many negative experiences in the Orleans Room with poor food quality and too many unfriendly encounters with rude staff at Smoothie King. I have resorted and limited myself to only eating at the C-Store.
The C-Store provides many options, including Godfather’s Pizza, an array of sushi, Starbucks Coffee and necessary items like bread. It is the campus grocery store and a popular destination for many students.
I started this semester with $600 in Wolf Bucks, an ample amount of money for snacks and meals while I am at school, considering I live off campus. That large sum rapidly dwindled away, and by fall break I found myself with barely any money left on my Express Card. Where does all my money go in that small convenience store, and how does it disappear so quickly?
After examining some prices in the store, I have now realized why I am calling home on a bi-weekly basis for more cash. At $5.29 for a box of Wheat Thins and more than $7 for some sushi plates, the prices of C-Store items are outrageous.
The small store has monopolized on-campus grocery shopping, and the store and school must be making close to a 100 percent profit on items such as milk and macaroni. Some students do not have access to a car that would allow them to buy food at a more moderately priced grocery store – the C-Store is their only option. It is not fair to charge these students so much for so little and ultimately diminish much of their spending money to nothing.
I can no longer shop at the C-Store. I have no more Wolf Bucks, and I cannot stand to see $2.39 for a granola bar appear on my debit card statement again. It is expensive enough to attend a private university, and food prices should not make the cost of eating unbearable.
Shannon Hill is a mass communication sophomore from Colorado.
