The Student Government Association (SGA) is working on a follow-up study to further investigate price variations between Charles Street Market (Char Mar) and other grocery stores.
According to sophomore senator Mark Dirzulaitis, most prices seem to be in line, but a number of items are considerably more expensive at Char Mar than at chain grocery stores and the local shops Eddie's and University Market (Uni Mini).
Karen Cutler, director of communications for Aramark, explained the process the company used to price its products.
"We have a competitive strategy . . . We analyze the prices at other local establishments and try to match ours appropriately," she said.
She added that price changes were not out of the question, but would have to be addressed through David Furhman, the director of Dining Services for Hopkins and the local Aramark management team.
Reginald Stephens, the operations director for Aramark at Hopkins, could not be reached for comment by press time.
Furhman elaborated on the pricing process used by Aramark in an e-mail to The News-Letter.
"Aramark implements a monthly competitive pricing analysis that includes pricing from the three convenience competitors in the area," he wrote.
"Retail prices are . . . based on a number of factors with the most obvious being their wholesale cost of any item."
He said that there are 38 major products that are used for this pricing analysis, including eggs, Dannon yogurt, several kinds of cereal, milk and a Ben & Jerry's ice cream pint.
However, the Ben & Jerry's pint is also one of the items on the SGA's list of products that was notably more expensive than at local and chain competitors.
According to the study, at Char Mar it cost $4.39, while Superfresh, the next most expensive competitor, had priced it at $3.99.Despite this, the study also showed that eggs at Char Mar were less expensive than at Superfresh and Safeway.
Furhman pointed out that various other factors come into account when setting prices.
"Other operational costs also affect pricing - such as the costs associated with the operating hours at the Charles Street Market," he wrote.
Like Cutler, he acknowledged the possibility of change but did not make any guarantees.
"JHU Dining and Aramark are always happy to meet with students," Furhman wrote.
"However, it would be unfair to expect that the meeting would instantly result in a lower retail price . . . For instance, if Aramark is unable to source a particular product at low enough wholesale cost to enable them to sell the product at a lower retail price, it would be unfair to expect them to take a loss on that product."
Furhman also addressed the fact that buying dining dollars at the beginning of the year means a student pays more for a dollar for a dining dollar. The exchange rate is about 1.4:1.
"The difference in the cost . . . is the University's facilities fee . . . to support the operational expenses of the campus dining programs including such items as utilities, cooking equipment, ongoing repairs and renovations," he wrote.
Depending on the meal plan, that fee can range from $136 to $416 per semester.Since this is paid from the actually meal plan, additional dining dollars purchased after the beginning of the semester does not carry the facilities fee.
Sophomore Claire Snodgrass acknowledged that the pricing was inconvenient sometimes, but also pointed out that Char Mar is at a disadvantage in some regards.
"I think it's hard for such a small supermarket to be competitive with a chain," she said. "I would like them to offer more competitive prices, though."
Senior Kevin Rhie said that since he's not on a meal plan, he just avoids shopping at Char Mar for the most part.
"I usually do my grocery shopping at Giant or even the farmer's market. There's a better selection and better prices."
Junior Aaron Jones felt that it was a problem but was pessimistic about change."I don't think the study will do much to change it," he said. "It's supply and demand. It's one of the only places you can use a meal plan."
Baylor University, another college that uses Aramark, has not experienced any issues with the company in terms of pricing, although Director of Dining Services Brett Perlowski also pointed out that Baylor's convenience store was quite small.
"We mostly just sell drinks and light snacks there, so it's very small," he said. "And when we sell national brands we make sure our pricing is in line with that."
Compared with pricing and meal plans at Towson University, Hopkins is more expensive, but also gives offers more dining dollars.
For example, the 14 meal plan at Towson comes with $50 of dining points and costs $1,987 and is the most popular meal plan. The 14 meal plan at Hopkins comes with $250 dining dollars and costs $2,579 and is one of the two meal plans available to freshmen.
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