Mabee Market and the other quick grab-and-go stores on campus provide students with a convenient option for meals and snacks. Many students, however, say they avoid buying products from these on-campus stores due to high markups on prices.
Grab-and-go stores on campus, referred to in this article as markets, offer a variety of goods for students, ranging from pints of ice cream to over-the-counter medication. Students rely on these markets as a spot to grab a quick snack or dessert but also to find meals when not available elsewhere and buy products they would otherwise need to go off campus for.
Alissa Aldrich, sophomore psychology major, suffers from Celiac disease which prevents her from eating gluten. She said that cross-contamination and improperly labeled foods at Mabee Dining Hall have led her to rely more on-campus markets, but their prices have discouraged her from eating on campus at all.
“I think that prices are extremely unfair. I think they are way more inflated than what they would be just going to a grocery store and especially for individuals who might not be able to necessarily eat all the foods at Coates or even at Mabee, especially on the weekends when Coates is closed, it makes it really hard for some of us to find food,” Aldrich said. “I am honestly better off just going out of my way to go to the grocery store instead of just being able to utilize utilities on campus.”
Teagan Harlow, sophomore neuroscience major, also has significant dietary restrictions. She said that because of these restrictions, she medically cannot eat most options offered by Trinity.
“I would say I rely more on getting food elsewhere because, on the days here, Mabee just doesn’t have something that I can eat. I have to go elsewhere,” Harlow said. “And then you can only do that one time a day without spending Bonus Bucks, and then you run out, and then you’re like, ‘Now I don’t have anything.’”
Trinity requires students to live on campus for three years, and all students must pay for a dining plan for all three years, whether it is an advantageous option or not.
“You have to have the meal plan, and you’re, like, I’m paying for this meal plan, so I don’t have the money to go and just like, I could just go and get groceries that I can actually eat like I did all summer and just have that, … but I don’t have the money to do that because I have to spend it all on the meal plan I have to have,” Harlow said.
With the requirement to buy a meal plan and the student body’s desire for accessible non-dining hall options in mind, students have expressed frustrations at campus market pricing. Jasmine Evenstad, sophomore anthropology and history double-major, said that increased prices under a required meal plan directly affects students.
“We don’t have another choice, and I just think it’s evil to take advantage of that and make us pay more than we have to, especially those of us who don’t have cars and it’s not as easy to get off campus,” Evenstad said. “And even for those of us who do have cars now, if I want to save $6 on strawberries, I have to use my own money and not the money I already paid for my meal plan.”
Evenstad said that campus markets are a place where the university makes a profit off of necessities. She said that this profit is unnecessary given the fact that the university already requires students to pay for a meal plan for three years.
“It’s very greedy to me and not at all in line with the University’s value of intentional inclusion, … I just don’t think this is something that a university that really cares about its students and cares about social justice would do,” Evenstad said.