The Grove’s Up-Charging: Convenient or Conniving?
written by Leah Brent and Emma Garber
“The Grove grocery store is conveniently located in the McCaffrey Center. It provides you options like grab-and-go lunch and dinner selections, snacks, beverages, and various grocery necessities.”¹
This is the description of Bon Appetit’s convenience store, the Grove, per the University of the Pacific’s website. And this description is partially true – the Grove is conveniently located in the center of campus, and walkable from any point on campus. However, some parts of that statement specifically stand out – in particular, the part regarding the Grove’s vending of necessities. The Grove does carry a handful of useful items that students can grab in a pinch.
That being said, the Grove’s central location on the Stockton campus and their carrying of necessities makes the store one of the key aspects of our campus. However, being the only convenience store on campus allows the Grove (and essentially, Bon Appetit) to set whatever prices they like for their goods. Slight upcharges are understandable – the company is aiming to make a profit. But the Grove doesn’t just “slightly upcharge:” they majorly upcharge. The prices at the Grove have been a recent area of concern, for both the general population of students on the Stockton campus as well as within the functioning student government body, ASUOP.
ASUOP has also been receiving feedback from students about upcharges. Some students feel the prices are unfair and exploitative – a way for Bon Appetit to charge more “per meal” to make up for any profit losses elsewhere. Others feel that these upcharges are a form of price gouging. Additionally, students feel as though they don’t have a choice other than to pay the high prices, because they don’t have reliable transportation to local stores. For some, the Grove is all they can rely on.
The Grove is also used by commuter students who don’t always have a pre-paid meal plan card. These students notice Grove markups easily and still have to deal with the increase in prices while they are on campus.
In addition to the established discomfort at the current prices, there is word that some goods will be going up in price again, if they are to stay at the Grove. At the forum which ASUOP held on January 23 2023, Dr. Josh O’Connor, head of Residential Life and Housing, asked the ASUOP Senate how students would feel about the prices of some goods rising again.
According to the Senate minutes from January 23, 2023, The Grove is about to change purveyors which means that the prices of some goods will be going up yet again. These goods include necessities such as Tampax, Tylenol, cleaning supplies, soap, etc. When ASUOP held a forum asking for student feedback, their main question was whether the students believe that these products are worth keeping in the Grove; or whether they should not be sold and students should have to go elsewhere.
This article aims to take a closer look at the Grove upcharges and compare the prices to a local corporate grocery store. Upcharge percentages will be calculated accordingly in comparison to other prices. That being said, when taking record of prices at the Grove, most prices of goods were not listed by the product. When we asked one of the employees if there was an available list of all current prices, we were told that such a list does not exist because the prices are constantly changing. However, there were some prices listed, and for the purposes of this article, those prices will be accepted as the current listed prices, as under California Business & Professions Code Section 12024.2 BPC: Inaccurate Pricing, stores may not engage in false pricing of a commodity in charging more than the posted price.² Therefore, some prices may be lower than the posted price, but those were not provided when asked. Please find the calculations and a chart below.
A jar of Nutella at the Grove was listed as $8.37, versus the price at the Stockton Target store for the same amount (13oz), which is only $3.99. This means that the Grove is selling a 13oz jar of Nutella at a 110% increase from $3.99.
A 16oz jar of Jif peanut butter (which is not pictured in this photo but is shown in the last photo) at the Grove is listed at $8.15. At Target, this same amount and brand goes for only $2.99. This is almost a 173% increase from the $2.99 price at Target.
An 8.5oz of Listerine mouthwash at the Grove sells for $7.18, but at Target it is sold for only $3.69. This is almost a 94.6% increase from $3.69.
A 19 oz bottle of Downy fabric softener at the Grove sells for $6.84. The price of a 51 oz bottle at Target is only $5.49. With some simple calculations, it can be said that at Target, the price per ounce is approximately 11 cents, while the price per ounce at the Grove is approximately 36 cents. This means that per ounce, the Grove is charging 227.3% more than the local Target.
A bottle of Cholula hot sauce sells for $5.82 at the Grove but only $3.69 at Target. That is a markup of 57.7%.
These two loaves of sliced sourdough bread are not exactly the same, but they seem comparable in the pictures. The bread sells for $9 at the Grove but only $4.39 at Target. In this case, the markup is 105%.
We have included a chart below to make this data more digestible:
The blue bars represent the item’s price in dollars at The Grove and the orange bars represent the item’s price in dollars at Target. Look to the y-axis on the left to see the scale for dollars. The black line represents the item’s increase in price as a percentage. Look to the y-axis on the right to see the scale for percent increase. Each of the items examined in the article are listed on the x-axis.
So, what’s next? We propose that students should start taking action by advocating for Bon Appetit to be more transparent about their real profit margins. In conclusion, these prices are not fair to students – especially students that rely on The Grove for necessities they are unable to access elsewhere. It’s time that Bon Appetit comes clean about their prices, and stops exploiting the needs of Pacific students. We must work together to create a more fairly priced campus store for all.
“Places to Eat.” University of the Pacific. Accessed February 8, 2023. https://www.pacific.edu/student-life/housing-dining/residential-life-and-housing/stockton-dining.
“California Code, Business and Professions Code - BPC § 12024.2.” Findlaw. Accessed February 8, 2023. https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/business-and-professions-code/bpc-sect-12024-2.html.
cover photo from https://www.pacific.edu/student-life/housing-dining/residential-life-and-housing/stockton-dining