Losing its fizz
If you’re looking for an affordable Coke, the USU Bookstore is no longer an option.
The USU Bookstore is removing its lone Coke cooler to alleviate conflicts between the store and the Food and Dining Services.
The Bookstore installed the Coke cooler last November following recommendations from a student committee to place one in the store, said Todd Barlow, chairman of the student committee. The Bookstore sold Coke products at 99 cents, the most affordable price on campus – even lower than vending machines, Barlow said. The purpose of the pop machine was to provide a commodity for students that they had requested, he said.
David Weston, manager of the Bookstore, said, “We are not a convenience store, but when a customer comes in we want to have what the customer wants and make it convenient. We don’t feel like we’re competing with anybody as a convenience store.”
However, Chuck Weaver, director of USU Dining Services said he’s worried the added soda machine will cause conflicts with the contract USU has with Coca-Cola. Currently, Weaver is Coca-Cola’s contact point with the university, and anything that regards Coke will be traced back to him, Weaver said.
“Certainly Coca-Cola has a stake in this,” Weaver said. “We need one point of contact to come to. Certainly if there’s any problem with vending, they come to me. How are we going to administer the vending program on campus? [The Bookstore] went out on their own without considering those things. I talked to them to try to work something out, who’s going to do what. I guarantee any problem with Coke has my name written all over it whether it’s me or not.”
Weaver said USU Dining Services has traditionally held the Coke market, selling Coke products at the Quick Stop, Hub and through vending machines – the convenience locations at the university. He said he doesn’t understand why the Bookstore is trying to get into that market.
“It’s a traditional item for food services,” Weaver said. “I don’t want to get into the bookstore business. I don’t know why they’d want to get in the convenience store business.”
Terry Hodges, interim director for the Bookstore, said the machine was available due to student request.
“We have a student committee that looks at customer service through the students’ eyes, and they made the recommendation that we have it as a convenience,” he said. “We’re not going to make a ton of money from the Coke machine, but it was done as a convenience item.
“We’ve had a reputation of being a high-priced place for students. We don’t think we are anymore. We’re trying to be very competitive in our pricing. We price the Coke products within the standards we’ve set for pricing. We’re making a profit off it. We’re not undercutting or underpricing or trying to do it below what our costs are. It was just priced at our philosophy.
“So really it was done as a convenience from our student committee saying we ought to have it for students who are in here. It’s a convenience item. They’re in shopping for the books or supplies or whatever. If they want a Coke, why should they have to leave the store to get a Coke?”
Before the Bookstore installed the soda machine, the two most convenient locations to buy a pop was a vending machine, which sold them at $1.25, or at the Quick Stop for $1.39. When the Bookstore started selling pop at 99 cents, it provided the same service at a more affordable price for students, Weston said.
“Our full intention at the Bookstore is to bring value to the students,” Weston said. “We believe in a competitive nature. We don’t think that just because you’re a student here we should take advantage of you. We want to make sure students know that what they get here is the best possible price we can get for the students and still stay in business.”
Weaver said he is not so much concerned about the Bookstore having a soda machine as he is about the over-saturation of the soda market in the Taggart Student Center.
With the price difference and the conflict over the Coke contract, the Bookstore was told to raise the prices, Hodges said.
“We were told to raise the prices but we won’t do that,” Hodges said. “We won’t take advantage of our customers.”
Weston said the demand to raise prices was “probably a real black eye on free enterprise.” Refusing to raise prices, the Bookstore opted to remove the pop machine to avoid further conflicts, Hodges said.
“We think it’s kind of a slap because we’ve done something to help the students,” Barlow said. “There needs to be something that allows businesses to do what they need. We’re stuck. We’re not sure what to do.”
Cody Myers, a sophomore majoring in business, said, “I’m just frustrated because here we get one good thing coming in. The Bookstore brought that pop machine in and it’s so much cheaper. I feel like I’m really getting gypped now because I know they could keep it at the $1.03 where it used to be. It makes me more angry and not wanting to buy from the university.”
He said he feels like Food Services at USU are more like “a food monopoly” because students can’t buy food from anyone else on campus. “They are a business, but we are the ones who keep them in business,” he said, frustrated at having to pay more than retail price for food.
As it stands, the Bookstore is selling off the remaining soda in the machine for 75 cents and will then discontinue sales, Weston said. This will once again make the Quick Stop, the Hub and the vending machines the only sources for soda in the TSC, at a more expensive price.
Matt Kerr, a member of the Bookstore student committee and a junior majoring in computer science, said the only way the Bookstore will bring the soda machine back is if students push for it. He said many students already complained, but unless students request the machine to come back, it won’t be a part of the Bookstore.
“It’s going to come down to what the students say,” Kerr said. “If it’s something they want, they need to make it known.”
-sethhawkins@cc.usu.edu