SGA considers high prices at Charles Street Market

The Student Government Association (SGA) recently ran a pricing study on items at Charles Street Market (Char Mar) and found that certain items were considerably more expensive than the same items at both chain supermarkets like Safeway and Superfresh and local competitors like Eddie's and University Market.

The study was led by sophomore senator Mark Dirzulaitis, a member of the SGA's Campus Affairs Committee. Dirzulaitis said that for the survey, SGA members took a basket of 20 items and compared their Char Mar prices to their prices at other stores.

"Most of them were fine, but there were a few items that were just absurdly marked up," Dirzulaitis said.

Some of the highest marked up items were Stonyfield Yogurt, Kraft Cracker Barrel Cheese, Axe Body Wash, Lucky Charms cereal, Colgate Total White toothpaste, paper towels and a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

After seeing the results of the survey, Dirzulaitis met with the manager of Char Mar to discuss some of the items. He specifically mentioned a cheese that was between $4.99 and $5.99 at other stores, but $8.09 at Char Mar. He was told that Char Mar employs a "competitive pricing mechanism" to compete with other local stores.

"On Monday when I went back the price had been lowered to $5.99," Dirzulaitis said.

He said he was surprised and pleased to see that effect.

"They are being very cooperative, and I think once we present all our findings to them they will be open to change," he said. He strongly emphasized that he thinks Aramark will be open to changing its prices after the study is presented to it.

At the SGA meeting on Tuesday, Dirzulaitis presented the findings of his study and proposed a more targeted study to see if other items are similarly overpriced.

His goal is to gather more data, then present the findings to Dave Furhman, the head of Hopkins dining.

"Dave can communicate with the regional director of Aramark and maybe bring about change," he said.

While he did not give a strict timeline for when the SGA representatives involved in the study would meet with Furhman, Dirzulaitis said it would probably be done by the time of the SGA's last meeting of the semester, a week or two after Thanksgiving break.

The types of items Dirzulaitis found to be most overpriced were toiletries, cereals and what he describes as "premium items," such as the Kraft Cracker Barrel Cheese.

The price mark-ups ranged from an average of 17.22 percent for the ice cream to 111.11 percent for the yogurt.

The average Ben and Jerry's pint supermarket price was $3.75, while at Char Mar it was $4.39. For Stonyfield yogurt the average price at supermarkets was $0.99, while at Char Mar a yogurt cost $2.09.

Student for the most part did not seem surprised that Char Mar prices were higher than other stores. However, they supported the SGA's efforts to call more attention to the fact.

Junior Kevin Barnett felt that Char Mar takes advantage of the fact that it is one of the only places students can use dining dollars.

"They unfairly exploit the students by locking them into a meal plan and limiting their options," he said.

He felt that the study had the potential to affect change at Char Mar.

"Now that the students are actually expressing their opinion . . . instead of just groaning to themselves, it might actually affect Aramark."

However, because Char Mar is one of the only places near campus where students can spend dining dollars, sophomore Rohan Shah said he was not particularly concerned with the difference in prices between Char Mar and other grocery stores.

"They are slightly more expensive, but I don't really mind since I've already paid for the dining dollars... and I don't use all my dining dollars anyway," he said.

Freshman Georgia Pierce, however, agreed with Barnett.

"The Char Mar prices are pretty expensive," she said.

While she expressed the hope that this study would lead to a change in prices, she did not think it was very likely.

"I think they know they're convenient for students and they're going to bank on that," she said.