LETTER: Food services has a monopoly

To the editor:

I am angry. This morning I read the article on thefront page of the statesman concerning the Coke coolerremaining in the Bookstore for an “evaluation period”. The article was in response to a previous article that claimed food services was angry with thebookstore for selling soda for $.99, and wanted them to remove the machine. I read today’s headline and I was happy to see that they decided to keep the great price. “They are finally listening to the students!” I thought to myself. Then I read the article. From what I read, there are some messages that I received.

The food services don’t care about the students and are ripping them off. This is the bottom line. And it goes beyond Coke. Let’s look at the picture. The bookstore decides it would be a good idea to bring in soda at a greatprice. Seems like a good Idea. The students are getting a good deal that compares with local off campus vendor prices that don’t fall under the rule of the food service monopoly. Of course any monopoly would be angry if someone tried to compete with them. So they strike. They fight with the bookstore and try to make them remove the soda machine, claiming it was because of a contract with Coke. By the way, the contract with Coke doesn’t quite relate here. It has to do with the food services only selling Coke products, with the exception of the quickstop. Maybe I’m missing something, but I fail to see how this relates to the bookstore. They both buy from the same place for the exact same price. The food services just decides to raise the price. Weird. So to avoid any problems, the bookstore decides to take the machine out and leave it up to the voice of the students.

Of course, as stated in the article today, there was a “flood of student outrage comments”. I was angry too. So in response, the food services, who seemed a little worried about their image, decided to try and repair things by putting an article in the paper. If you haven’t read it, read it. And read between the lines. I did. I felt like I was in a sea of contradictions.

Dwight Davis, who is the associate vice president for auxiliary services, says that meeting the student needs is “really, truly the bottom line.” Then why are you complaining about the bookstorelistening to the students and bringing in cheaper soda? Why are you complaining about over saturation of the market that you have a monopoly on? Why areyour margins so high? Why is everything under the food services rule more expensive than anything in town?

Here’s a thought: maybe if you lowered those prices a little, more students would buy from you. I know I would. By the way, I just got word that thehub just raised the price on a slice of bread by 15 cents.

Justin Morrey