I end my math class, hungry for a good snack. I make my way to the school store, excited to satisfy my craving. I pick up a bag of Takis and scan my lanyard. I open the purple bag and am met with a delicious chile and lime smell. I’m halfway through the delicious bag when my dad texts me. “DID YOU REALLY JUST SPEND 3  DOLLARS ON A BAG OF CHIPS?!?” 

The school store is one of the most visited places by our students. Students love the great selection of snacks and drinks that are offered, as well as the lunch items they provide which give the students a break from the usual cafeteria lunch. From a business standpoint, they do exceptionally well. They make hundreds of sales a day which leads me to believe that they make thousands of dollars a day; an impressive figure. Up until now, they have done nothing wrong. They just supply the demand that the students have for snacks and drinks. So what is the big problem? The prices. The prices are incredibly and disgustingly high, to the point where I would go as far as to say that they take advantage of the students. 

To show this I will use the four items I, myself, purchase the most from the school store: Takis, Gatorade protein bar, Maruchan soup, and a Chick-fil-a sandwich. A bag of Takis is 3$. Let’s compare that to the 1.50$ price tag they have at a store like Kroger or Target. A Maruchan soup which is priced at 2.50$, compared to 0.50$ at Target. A Gatorade bar is $3.50 at the school store. However, Gatorade bars aren’t sold individually but in packs of 12 which are sold for 17.00$ on Amazon and Target, which is 1.40$ per bar. A Chick fil A sandwich is 4.75$ at Chick fil A, compared to the 7.00$ at the school store. They make around a 200% profit and that’s the same story with every single item in the store. What would cost me a total of $8.15 dollars in the “real world” but at the school store costs $16, almost double. 

I understand that the school store is a business. I understand that they want to make as much money as possible, just like every other business. But, it becomes a problem when you’re a monopoly, and 95% of your sales are to children. I find it completely unethical and I just don’t see a reason for the prices to be as high as they are. It gets to the point where a good number of my friends are actually banned by their parents from buying items at the school store because of how high the prices are. 

“It’s ridiculous, it’s depressing walking into the school store knowing I can’t buy what I would want to buy,” said senior Deji Fagbayi. “I feel like they try to take advantage of me when they make me pay 5 dollars for an item when I can buy it for 2 outside of school.”  

My proposed solution is to replace these manipulative prices with fair ones, as well as making the prices more visible in the school store. I think another solution could be to let students sell snacks in order to grow entrepreneurship spirit and unmonopolize the market at school. All in all, I wish the school store the best, but I refuse to support scammers like that.