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:: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 ::
Explain This to Me, Slowly, Using Small Words
Go to any vending machine on the University of Illinois - Unlimited Coke campus and you can get a 15.2 oz bottle of Orange Juice for $1.25. Even though this costs more than a 20oz bottle of soda, I'm willing to pay more because, well, OJ is an organic product which requires a bit more effort to grow and distribute. However, when I went to the new Ala Carte location near my dorm - replacing the old Sunrise Saks grab-and-go location - I found that the same bottle of OJ there would cost me 150 "cafe credits." With an equivalency rating of 1credit = 1¢, said bottle of OJ costs me (well, alright, my parents) $1.50, a rather important difference of 25¢, seeing as I'm in the habit of drinking two bottles of OJ every morning. Also, last year, one meal (475 credits for breakfast) would, at Sunrise Saks, get me two OJs and two other sides (usually a doughnut and a bananna nut muffin). This year, those same items cost me 550 credits - 75 credits more than the normal breakfast!
Considering all this, I'd already become convinced that Dining Services is out to rip off every single resident, myself included. This was confirmed when I took a wander over to the Illini Orange, a convenience store in the Six Pack operated by Dining Services itself, and discovered that my favorite little bottle of OJ costs me only $1.17 there! Why there are three different prices on the same bottle of OJ -all within 100 yards of each other - is beyond me.
:: The Squire 6:00 PM :: email this post :: ::
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