LETTER: We’re the ones who lose

To the editor:

I am writing in response to the article “Losing its Fizz” from the Wednesday Statesman about the removal of the 99 cent Coke machine from the Bookstore. I, myself, don’t frequent the TSC much, let alone ever drink any of the Coke offered there, but I do feel that what happened in this incident is unreasonable. This is a move against students in general, Coke-guzzlers or not.

The director of USU Dining Services, Mr. Weaver’s, poor defense was that the Bookstore is entering ‘convenience store’ business and that there is an over-saturation of the soda market. This is obviously skirting the real problem. Are students complaining about the three different choices they have in purchasing Coke while in the busiest building on campus? Hardly. There are vending machines in buildings throughout campus; this does not make the Fine Arts Building, Engineering Building, or any other become a convenience store for offering drinks or candy. It allows for convenience to the student. That’s a good thing by the way.

Mr. Weaver and others in the Dining Services did not request the machine to be removed; they told the Bookstore they had to “raise their prices”. That isn’t avoiding over-saturation of the product, it’s removing competition. No more than Flying J can demand that Maverick raise its gas prices to match their own can Food Services demand that other departments not offer, or raise the price of, their goods.

If Dining Services can’t compete with fair-prices drinks, they will have to lower their prices, or give it up. Instead of jacking up prices, the Bookstore opted to remove the machine to end the conflict. We, as students, are the ones that ultimately lose in this scenario with a high-priced monopoly of goods. As the article suggested, contact the student committee, bookstore, the president, your mom, all of ’em. And let them know, you control the market, not Mr. Weaver. Ask for the re-installation of cheaper drinks offered in the Bookstore. Heck, I’ll drink a stinkin’ Coke if we could pull that off.

Emily Anderson