Ounce for ounce: Union pricing unfair

By Wildcat Editors
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 3, 1997
I sold my soul to the company store." That's how the old song goes.

Business loves a captive audience and as consumers we're used to paying a premium for concessions in movie theaters, stadiums and airports. It's part of the contract.

Recent changes in the pricing strategy at the Memorial Student Union seem to indicate a change in our contract.

Lately, customers enter lines in some of the Student Union's restaurants with no idea how much a meal will cost. Per-ounce pricing, based on a scale of dollars per pound of food, makes it harder to gauge the cost of a meal. The human mind is not generally trained to determine what an ounce of food looks or feels like. Many such minds are surprised.

Lately, you can frequently hear the griping of customers who struggle to comprehend how a plate of pasta can cost $4.85.

"Do you want to weigh my (expletive) soda?" one student was overheard asking.

The change in pricing methods from last year's set rates was motivated by a number of factors, including improved customer convenience, improved variety and Student Union renovations, according to Jerry Groch, Dining Services Division Manager. At the bottom of this, of course, is money, which means that Food Services has to compensate for inflation and the increasing cost of basic ingredients (milk, meat, soybeans, etc.)

However, the truth is that by-the-ounce food sales, even those with a maximum dollar cost per plate, are not fair.

They're deceptive. By forcing customers to guess at what they're buying, the management of the Student Union has set them up. Set them up to pay more than they mean to. Perhaps scales could be placed in the food service area to allow students to get a better sense of how much food they have and how much money they are about to spend, much like a grocery store produce aisle.

Union restaurants do offer a maximum cost per plate, but that cost is high enough that it stratifies the campus population. Shouldn't a union work to unify the campus? And some selections have no maximum posted; the sky's the limit. That makes for really dicey budgeting.

Groch claims that, on the whole, this method absorbs increased input prices and makes the average meal cheaper. But the simple experience of actually buying a turkey sandwich (with lettuce and Grey Poupon mustard on a French roll) at the On Deck Deli indicates otherwise.

The Student Union spends 18 cents to produce one-ounce of spaghetti. Eighteen cents per ounce doesn't seem terribly cost-effective. You can do better at the grocery store. Whatever happened to economy of scale?

Ask student employees how often they would eat in the Student Union without their 50/50 plan, which reduces the price by half.

Students, as well as faculty and staff, are a captive audience in the Student Union.

Yes, you can bring your lunch, but there are times when eating in the Student Union is unavoidable. Yes, you can step off campus, but again that is not always an option time-wise; up until recently, it also was the more expensive option.

The Memorial Student Union is taking advantage of its position on campus like the company store of old.

A business will always pass costs on to its customers, but there comes a time when customers should say enough is enough. The Student Union offers customer comment cards throughout the building.

Let them know that charging students for food by-the-ounce is patently wrong.