Despite ‘The Pod’ being advertised as a convenience for students to buy groceries and snacks, the prices are far from affordable. It is not convenient at all for someone who lives in the Village apartments or Park River, has a kitchen to utilize, and a need for other household products.

A four-pack of toilet paper is just as expensive as a gallon of gas these days, but I think the price gauging has little to do with inflation and more to do with the University’s attempt to nickel and dime its upperclassman. The meal plan I selected for the semester came with $800 dining dollars (alongside a few meal equivalencies a week) that I planned to use towards groceries to cook for myself in my apartment. By October, the dining dollars were completely diminished just by purchasing little bits of food at a time, and I was eventually paying out of pocket for items that I needed.

Considering how much we as students pay from tuition, it is only fair that a resource like the campus market would be more accommodating, and price items like a real grocery store.