CHRYSTAL MCCONNELL/Arizona Daily Wildcat Ryan Visniski, political science junior, places his order at the Student Union Memorial Center McDonald's. Itzy Nava, manager, supervises Michelle Naba at the cash register.

Students buying food at McDonald's in the Student Union Memorial Center say they are angry about the super-sized prices they pay compared to the McDonald's just a few blocks away.

The cost of a Big Mac meal at the union is $4.58. The same meal costs $3.64 at the McDonald's at 1711 E. Speedway Blvd. On average, value meals at the union location cost nearly $1 more than other area McDonald's.

Nearly every item on the union McDonald's menu is at least 10 cents more than the Speedway Boulevard location. Both are owned by the same man, David Schmidle.

Greg Weltsch, director of operations for Schmidle's restaurants, said that the extra price on their extra value meal is "just simple economics."

Weltsch said that the high cost of rent and the off-season resulting from the academic schedule left them with no choice but to charge more.

"In order to be there we had to charge more," Weltsch said. "The economics of it are a really weird scenario."

Many students, however, said they believe the restaurant is taking advantage of them .

"I think they are doing it because there are 35,000 students in the union and one McDonald's," said Jon Tarkowski, a political science freshman.

However, despite the differing costs, the union McDonald's accepts CatCards with university meal plans, whereas, others don't.

A few students said higher prices at the union McDonald's influenced them to personally boycott the golden arches. One of those students, history sophomore Pablo Sandoval, said he now eats at Carl's Junior or Burger King to avoid paying more.

"They totally jack you," said Sandoval, "First tuition and now the value meal. There goes my income."

Weltsch said students' anger is misdirected.

He said that renting the space in the union instead of operating out of a location where they own the property, like the one across Speedway Boulevard, doubles their monthly rent costs, increasing overhead.

The McDonald's also operates on a graduated rent scale, which means the more they make the more they must pay the union in rent.

"It's a vicious cycle because we are unprofitable for four months out of the year. We have to have a 60-man crew for four months and a then a 10-man crew the next month," Weltsch said.

Weltsch said Schmidle's decision to raise prices was heavily influenced by the corporate level and that moving to the union was not in their best interest financially.

"We lost 20 percent of our sales across the street when the student union opened," Weltsch said.

But David Galbraith, director of food services at the union, said that the rent price hasn't changed in four years.

Galbraith said that Schmidle has never raised concerns about profitability at monthly meetings with union vendors, which he said offer a prime time to share such concerns.

Schmidle decided to open the franchise because McDonald's would have sold the franchise to another buyer.

"It's fine to have to face the competition, but it's hard to compete against yourself," Weltsch said.

Arizona Student Unions Director Dan Adams said that despite the rent price, the food price should remain consistent.

"We've always asked those stores to maintain street pricing," he said. "There's absolutely no reason for McDonald's to increase prices."

Adams said he would talk to the restaurant about the increased prices.

But still, some students said they would continue eating at the golden arches on campus.

"I don't have to pay cash for it, so I don't really notice it," said environmental sciences sophomore Clarissa Heiner.

Other union restaurants, such as Domino's Pizza and Chick-fil-A, have maintained street pricing.