OpinionJedi mind-tricks at the cafeteria

Jedi mind-tricks at the cafeteria

This article was published on June 4, 2015 and may be out of date. To maintain our historical record, The Cascade does not update or remove outdated articles.
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By Alex Rake (The Cascade) – Email

Print Edition: June 3, 2015

Photo Credit Michael Scoular
UFV has an ugly atmosphere of apathy — and no grocery store.

They say you shouldn’t beat a dead horse. They also say, “Hey! Stop pretending to be Jerry Seinfeld!” I’m going to do both anyway: what’s the deal with cafeteria prices?

Until the Canoe opens up in the SUB, hungry UFV students who do not pack a breakfast, lunch, and dinner and cannot wander off campus have three options: something made entirely of bread from Tim Hortons, something huge that requires a 30-minute wait at Finnegan’s Pub, or something both quick and not-bread from the cafeteria. The cafeteria is expensive and we know this and we accept this and there is not much use discussing it because Lord Sodexo doesn’t read the paper.

But on one of my recent trips to the cafeteria (for a $5 container of wilted veggies and dip), the cashier accidentally overcharged me $40. This wasn’t a big deal. I just said, “Hey, I know the cafeteria’s expensive, but …”

Her response, besides correcting the price, was that “it’s not more expensive here than anywhere else.” Huh? I understand that she works in the service industry and probably gets a million angry, irrational complaints a day, but I was just making a lame joke. I write this now because she didn’t laugh and because she is actually wrong.

At the Abbotsford campus’ cafeteria, a slice of pizza, albeit a chubby one, is $3.49. A bottle of orange juice is $2.29. A fucking muffin is $2.79. For reference, that’s about the same price as gas-station food, notorious for being overpriced. A basic balanced meal at our cafeteria is $8.57.

Even compared to cafeterias and food programs at other universities — which I’m sure the cashier meant by “anywhere else” — these prices are high. The SFU dining hall offers an “all-you-care-to-eat” breakfast for $6, lunch for $9.50, and dinner for $11. In other words, an all-you-can-eat lunch at SFU is almost the same price as a slice of pizza, an orange juice, and a muffin at UFV.

At VCC, the cafeteria is run by culinary students. Yes, so is UFV’s Chilliwack cafeteria, but that doesn’t really benefit Abbotsford students. According to a Yelp review by one Albert H. of Northern Vancouver, VCC’s cafeteria offers a fresh breakfast of potatoes, four half-slices of toast, a cup of fruit, a cheese omelette, and hashbrowns for $4.73. That’s about the same price as one of Sodexo’s small breakfast wraps.

Sarine Gulerian wrote an article in Kwantlen’s student paper the Runner in 2010 on public opinion of their Sodexo-run cafeteria. The results were that students generally thought prices were ridiculous but understood that they were higher because of the convenience. Most responses had the tone of resignation, like they had no power to change prices anyway. One poignant line in the article reads, “It’s no surprise that some students aren’t willing to pay $2.20 for a container of Mr. Noodles when they are available for 99 cents at a grocery store across the street.”

UFV doesn’t even have a grocery store across the street. UFV also has an ugly atmosphere of apathy. This no doubt plays into Sodexo’s hand; students will continue to buy from the overpriced cafeteria. But please, while I’m buying your mediocre food at two-and-a-half times the proper value, don’t torture me with mind games. Don’t try to tell me this is how prices are everywhere, you dystopian food dispensary, you.

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