Dorm C-store prices unfair

At a local grocery store, Chi-Chi's salsa would run you about $2.91. In the dorm convenience stores, it's $5.59. A 92 percent markup. \nOscar Meyer Bologna costs $1.92 at the local groceries; but it costs $3.89 at the dorm convenience stores. The markup: 102 percent.\nA Healthy Choice dinner costs $2.32 at the local stores, but costs $4.99 in the dorms. The markup: 115 percent.\nThose are the price differences the IU Student Association came up with they averaged the prices at a handful of local stores, including popular chains like Kroger and Marsh and local stores like Faris Meat Market.\nStudents are put in a position where they are forced to buy a meal plan where the prices are much higher than if they went to the store. These students, mostly freshmen, are innocent victims of the meal point program.\nAlthough students are also buying the convenience of shopping in the dorms, that does not justify ripping them off.\nResidential Programs and Services says you cannot compare the prices because of overhead, but a Big Mac extra value meal from McDonald's is the same price in Read as the McDonald's on North Walnut Street. If McDonald's doesn't have to raise its prices on campus for the added overhead, why should the convenience stores? Plus, the stores have overhead of their own.\nOne option would be to bring in a third-party vendor to provide food in the dorms; competition will definitely lower the prices of food.\nSomething more than the current meal-plan review system must be done. Students are paying much higher prices than if they were able to opt out of the meal plan and shop on their own. The current system is unfair and must be changed.\nStaff vote: Unanimous