What’s Up With All of the Prices?

I love food. It’s great. Especially the danishes, cakes (some of them anyway), pretzels and instant hot/cold chocolate that they sell at our café. All returning students have noticed the obvious and aesthetically pleasing changes to the cafeteria and café, but we have also noticed the incredible increase in prices. Is 200 mL of chocolate milk equal to a slice of tiramisu? Really? Well, they both cost 20 RMB… I don’t think that the food at our café is super delicious, but it’s a great treat to have during a short break or during our independent study hall. But is it really a treat with the prices set so high, or is it more of an expense?

However, it’s not just the café’s prices that have increased, a sandwich went from 20 to 24 to 29 RMB over the course of a year. A simple sandwich should not be more than a hot meal served at the cafeteria during lunchtime. Quoting Robbie H’s Beacon article Cafeteria Facelift, he says that “the pasta prices were raised from 21 to 30 RMB, and the price of pizza increased from 19 to 30” since last year.

After coming down from a community service meeting one day, Prerna Kanji, Alison Liang and I wanted to get something to eat for the bus on the way home. Alison was the first to notice how much the prices went up and pointed it out. Being as blunt as she is, she admitted: “not worth it” and walked off. We got on the bus without buying anything.

Another thing I have noticed change dramatically is the number of people bringing their own lunch to school. All of the people I sit with during lunch break bring their own lunch while last year, they bought it from the cafeteria. This includes myself. Prerna says the food is “too expensive to purchase. 0 out of 10.”

Sophomore Richard Au has his own opinion about the food being sold this year saying that it’s “much better than last year’s” and the cafeteria is “worth the prices.” But he agrees with Prerna and Alison by saying the “café is way too expensive.” Sophomore Mulayne Lee agrees with Richard by saying that the food is “yucky and too pricey.” Gabriel Kim agrees with Richard because he thinks that “both the café food and the cafeteria food became better than last year’s because they added a variety to the menu, but then the prices are still high.” He wishes “the cafeteria lessens the overall price, especially the food costing 30 RMB.” There are also some people who are very blunt about their distaste towards the meals being served. One of these people is tenth grader, Sehun Kim, who said that “the food in the cafeteria is trash” and “the food in the cafeteria is much worse than last year’s, but the café became better because there is new food and new drinks.”

I’m not saying that the food is bad at school, but it isn’t anything special. The pretzels and the self-named bread-bagels are great, especially if you put them in the microwave for a little while (thank me later). Honestly, the food is too expensive, and everyone I asked agrees.