Vending machine prices of small bags of chips have been increased by 10 cents; also, LHS has also added two new vending machines to the cafeteria, which have new items, along with old items listed at a quarter higher price than previous years.
“The dime increase is to compensate for the increase in the actual product cost,” said Mr. Eric Maroscher, assistant principal, in reference to the increased price in old machines.
Fortunately for LHS, since it is a high school rather than a place of business, vending machine businesses are willing to keep the prices low, according to Mr. Maroscher. Basically, students buying food at a school generally aren’t treated as the average consumer. Vending machine companies take into account the fact that the main demographic within LHS, a public school, are students, and identify which items, in this case Cheetos, Fritos, Ruffles, Chex Mix, and Jays Potato Chips, to increase in price. This is done in order to efficiently compensate for the rising price of that item “rather than raise all the prices arbitrarily,” said Mr. Maroscher.
As for new machines, this 25-cent price increase can be attributed to the fact that they are new machines that contain new technology. The addition of credit card readers, at student request, is responsible for the price increase in the new machines, said Mr. Maroscher.
Despite the reasoning for the increase, the extra quarter still has been a source of distress for many vending machines users. “How many times do you just have a bunch of change sitting around? You have dollars, but you don’t have a whole bunch of quarters,” said a faculty member who requested to remain anonymous because she was criticizing the change. “The reasoning behind increasing the price to cover the cost of the new technology is bogus, because if they expect more people to be able to buy from a credit card, then that increased buying population should by-far outweigh the added cost to each individual soda,” she also stated.
So although vendors have reason behind the price changes, it is also clear that many people are not satisfied with the reasoning. “[Change] is so inconvenient….I would love to just use my singles to buy water,” said junior Emma Barina about the $1.25 cost of water.
