It's as if that term paper due tomorrow just doesn’t want to be written — it’ll be another late night at Davis Library. I shuffle through the foyer, narrowly avoiding eye contact with that smiley classmate I am in no mood to talk to. Distancing myself from group project chatter and loud Zoom meeting blabber, I find a cozy corner to get writing on the second floor. By the time I close Instagram and open my laptop, midnight draws near.
My stomach growls, unsated by the Bojangles it so happily received five hours prior, and my tired mind is in dire need of a pick-me-up. Through no fault of my own, I stand before the vending machines. Four dollars for a Starbucks Tripleshot. Two bucks for a bag of chips. Three dollars and seventy-five cents for a Celsius. Who do they think I am?
The cost of attending UNC is by no stretch of the imagination low enough to justify the exorbitant prices that campus vending machines charge. The worst part is that there is nothing we can do about it.
In an effort to gauge student sentiment on vending prices, I took to UNC’s private Snapchat stories and posted binary polls with questions along the lines of, “Are vending machine prices fair?” The results would surprise no one — something had to be done.
With an overpriced Celsius in one hand and my Kenan-Flagler rejection letter in the other, I set out to provide affordable snacks to students. StudySnacks was born, and my roommate and I took to delivering snacks in Davis at prices way below what vending machines charge, helping students stay fueled without breaking the bank.
StudySnacks was an instant hit. Orders came in quickly, and students’ faces lit up when we handed them their cheap snacks, without them having to leave their seats.
But it wasn’t long before UNC Vending reached out, expressing concern over a “direct violation of an exclusive contract the University has with a Snack Provider in University-owned and leased buildings.” This exclusive contract is between UNC and Canteen, a food services company that owns and operates vending machines across campus.
Of course, this is an excellent arrangement from UNC’s standpoint. Canteen employees maintain and stock the machines, and UNC gets to sit back and collect a portion of the profit (at a price point of three dollars and seventy-five cents for a 5-oz pack of Nerds Gummy Clusters, the gross margin sits around 40 percent).
Over several weeks, my roommate and I discussed our operations with UNC Vending and UNC Student Affairs. Both departments were supportive and clearly had our best interests in mind by being open to conversation; nevertheless, we came to understand that running the business in its existing configuration was prohibited.
