Going Bananas

College students enjoy a healthy snack just as much as anyone else. If they feel the urge at CSUN, a single apple or banana at the Marketplace or other campus retailers will cost them $1.00. This compares to $1.00 for two bananas at a nearby 7-Eleven store, and an amazing five bananas for a dollar at Trader Joe's. The most expensive banana I could find off-campus was 69 cents at a local grocery store.

I don't know why students are being overcharged so egregiously for fruit. Perhaps it is the same captive-audience mentality that drives up the prices of snacks at airports and movie theaters. Perhaps, in the face of budget cuts, limited classes, staff layoffs, poor maintenance, and the huge salaries of CSU presidents, it was determined that frequent tuition increases simply aren't enough to keep things running. If only half of CSUN's approximately 35,000 students could be persuaded to pay an extra 50 cents for a snack just twice a week, that would amount to an extra $17,500 per week to The University Corporation, whose website informs us (somewhat ungrammatically) that, "Surplus generated through its commercial endeavors are transferred to the University for discretionary use."

Food for thought.