Vending machine sales support student scholarship programs and activity services

Simone Virzi — News Writer

If a Southern student is in the mood for soda or water, fruit snacks, pita chips or chocolate, they can easily slip $1 or change into the money slot, type in the option they want, then their snack is right in front of them, thanks to the food and beverage machines throughout campus.

“The university has approximately 24 snack machines and 31 beverage machines on campus,” Carol Wallace, director of adminis­trative support services, said.

She said snack and bev­erage vending machines are present in most of the build­ings on campus.

Wallace said the excep­tions include: “Office Build­ing 1, the nursing building, Lang House, Connecticut Hall, Temporary Building (TE) 6 and 7, Seabury Hall, Ethnic Heritage Center, Energy Center and Lyman Center.”

According to Wallace, the snack and beverage vend­ing machines with the most activity include the vending machines in Engleman Hall and in the Morrill/Jennings breezeway.

Freshman Jamie Hebert said the vending machines in Morrill/Jennings are “so inconvenient” because if a student wants to make a purchase, there are usually people standing there.

According to Wallace, from July 1, 2011 to Jan. 1, “students used the vend­ing machines over 100,000 times.”

She also said that during the week of Sept. 18-24 of last year, the “campus vend­ing machines were used 6,737 times.”

According to Southern’s website, there are approxi­mately 11,769 students at Southern: 8,496 are under­graduate students and 3,273 are graduate students.

“Last fall, combined cash and card sales (for those vend­ing machines with card read­ers) totaled approximately $126,593 (with $70,514 from beverage machine sales),” she said.

Hebert said one of the issues with vending machines is a student cannot use money from their Food Loot— instead they have to use their own money. She said she tries to use spare change instead of dollar bills.

“College students can’t spend much money,” she said, adding trips to the vending machine “adds up quickly.”

According to Southern’s website, students cannot use Food Loot to make purchases from vending machines, but they can use Hoot Loot.

“Students can use their Hoot Loot at campus food service locations, the SCSU Bookstore, on-campus print­ing, beverage and snack machines, and more,” accord­ing to its website.

However, a student must add that money to their Hoot Loot account.

Since Hebert lives on campus, she said she may buy something from the vending machine in her building if she is studying late at night and Conn Hall is not open. She also said she may stop at a vending machine if she does not have enough time to grab food at Conn Hall or the student center.

“It’s convenient some­times going to class,” she said.

Hebert said she often purchases pretzels, or she may buy something with chocolate, but it may vary.

“It depends on my mood,” she said.

According to South­ern’s 2011-2012 orientation handbook for campus resi­dents: “Residence hall vending machines are located in lounges, lobbies, and recreational areas. Most vending machines accept Hoot Loot and all machines accept cash.”

Part-time student Melissa Barnard said she does not usually buy anything from the vending machines.

“It’s too expensive,” she said, adding she will generally just bring something from home.

She said she may occa­sionally buy from the vending machine— if she does, it is “probably water.”

According to Wallace, Southern benefits from having the snack and beverage vending machines on campus.

“The university does receive financial considerations from the venders contracted to provide these services and the commission schedule var­ies with vendor and product,” Wallace said. “However, all commission from vending sales goes directly toward supporting student activity services and student scholarship programs.”

According to Southern’s 2011-2012 orientation hand­book for campus residents, “Vending machines support residence hall and campus programs.