Jay Store is worth the trip, but RoFo has more for the money

After returning to campus for the fall semester, students were left with questions. What happened to the Depot? What happened to MegaBYTES? While both were still open and fully functioning, something was missing. The idea of meal equivalence was essentially abolished, if you count the fast-food type atmosphere of MegaBYTES in the same context as a dining hall. The Hopkins workers were attacked with constant questions like "Where can we get boxes of macaroni and cheese? What happened to the plethora of Ramen noodle packs? Can we get microwavable T.V. dinners anymore?" Every student was met with the same answer: It's all in the Jay Store.

At the very beginning of the year, this was an unbelievable disappointment, seeing as the store wasn't even finished yet. But finally, now that everyone has long since found other means of getting these college necessities, the Jay Store is open and ready for business!!

The store is located right next to Terrace Dining Hall on the Freshman Quad. It's open from 2 p.m.. to 12 a.m.. Monday through Thursday, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and on Sunday from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. It's slightly larger than MegaBYTES and has basically the same things that MegaBYTES and the Depot sold last year. The fabulous perk of the Jay store, however, is its ice cream and smoothie menu. They serve any number of decadent fruit smoothie combinations, all made fresh while you wait. They also have ice cream and frozen yogurt. Last but certainly not least, the Jay Store offers milkshakes and malts in four conventional flavors. For all of you chocolate fiends out there, I strongly recommend the chocolate milkshake. You will not be disappointed; except, perhaps, when you see the price. The store itself is quite clean, and the service is excellent. When I bought my chocolate milkshake, the employee who made it accidentally put too much in the cup so it spilled when he put on the lid. He was nice enough to make me a new one without me even saying a word.

Is it worth the walk across campus for sophomores, juniors and seniors? Does it provide for the freshman the same luxuries that MegaBYTES and the Depot used to offer? To answer these questions, I took it upon myself to do a little comparison-shopping and what better place to compare to than Royal Farms?

The prices at the Jay Store are slightly higher than those at Royal Farms. Also, for the majority of the student body, Royal Farms is actually closer than the Jay Store. And while the Jay Store does have late hours, Royal Farms is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You never run the risk walking there in the middle of a cold winter night and cursing to yourself when you see the "closed" sign on the window. You can get Royal Farms fried chicken at three o'clock in the morning if the mood strikes you. A definite plus for the Jay Store, however, is that you don't have to wonder whether or not someone's going to wander in during those lucky five minutes that you're there and hold up the place with a gun. For most of us that go to Royal Farms, though, we're so sleep-deprived and caffeine-dependent that the threat no longer scares us.

Overall, the Jay Store is a nice convenience-mart type store that is reminiscent of the good old days when we could meal equiv. for what seemed like almost anything at MegaBYTES and the Depot. The down side is, we can't meal equiv. and with the prices being as high as they are, the Jay Store needs that incentive. Otherwise, since we're basically just going to have to pay cash anyway, we might as well go where it's cheaper and closer. Right now, while the store itself looks good, the outlook does not look so good. I was cruising through the aisles for 20 minutes and the entire time, not one other student walked in. If the Jay Store wants the business, they're going to have to come up with some sort of catch. I don't know about you, but my J-cash is already pretty much non-existent, and with the budget of a typical college student, I'm counting my dimes and quarters and they seem to add up to Royal Farms.