国家税务总局监制
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2011
PAGE 15
CAMPUS
Food prices rise, keeping pace with trends
BY KYLIE NUTT knutt@kansan.com
KU Dining Services is paying more for food. And now, so will you.
Prices increased between 2 and 2.5 percent last week for on-campus eateries. Officials say the reason for the bump is to keep up with the national rise of food costs.
The United States Department of Agriculture recently announced the Consumer Price Index is increasing for all foods, according to its website. The CPI measures the level of average prices paid by consumers for goods and services, including food, according to USDA's website.
The CPI increased 3.5 percent from May 2010 to May 2011, which is high compared with a 0.8 percent increase from 2009 to 2010. That was the lowest food inflation rate since 1962, according to USDA's website.
Inflation increased this year because of "cost pressures on wholesale and retail food prices due to higher food commodity and energy prices, along with strengthening global food demand," according to USDA's website.
KU Dining Services saw similar food inflation rates as the USDA. In 2009, all food prices remained the same and in 2010 prices increased 1.5 percent, said Alecia Stultz, assistant director of retail operations.
"We have to make sure what we are pricing our items because we have to cover the price of the food we are paying for and our employees' wages and overheads," Stultz said.
KU Dining Services also saw difficulties with crop and oil prices on the rise, along with other food-related costs, which led it to no other option than to increase food prices where necessary.
Various food prices increased at some of the twenty-two on-campus
dining locations.
Some recipes were altered, such as the Brellas wraps concept, to keep the prices the same, Stultz wrote in an e-mail. Other licensed dining concepts, such as Pizza Hut and Chic-fil-A increased prices to charge close to what the stand-alone stores charge.
On-campus businesses decide each year whether food prices
should increase, decrease or remain the same. But it's not as easy as one may think, in the community and across the nation, to make sure businesses appropriately charge what is needed.
which caused dining services to increase prices almost one and a half months early, Stultz said.
Dining services does benchmarking, which is comparing its prices to competitors, months prior to the end of the fiscal year to determine if prices are competitive.
"We will not lower our product standards because of price."
It is important to compare like items, Stultz said.
Most recently, coffee prices increased at the Pulse coffee shop between 1 and 2 percent toward the end of May. Stultz said. Coffee beans increased substantially in April,
ALECIA STULTZ assistant director of retail operations
"We try to find our direct competitor," Stultz said. "Somewhere else they could go, such as Panera, Applebee's, Panda Express and Jimmy John's, to look at their prices."
Items such as bottled beverages, candy, etc., had a
minimal price increase, but most remained the same, Stultz said in an e-mail.
She said KU Dining Services will occasionally find students saying
"that item is price out of my range,
I won't get it anymore, or I'll get it
twice a week."
That is why KU Dining Services tries to bundle items to make it more beneficial to students, such as adding in a cookie with a meal, so they are getting something extra. Stultz said.
Even though some students may not buy an item because it costs too much,the quality of the product will not suffer to make it less expensive Stultz said.
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MORE INFO
go to kansan.com for charts on the specific price increases