The hardcore left seem to have an ideological revulsion to competition and its surrounding benefits. I take issue with this, and the reason why, is the fucking disaster that is the providing of food and bar services to our humble university populace. I genuinely implore our elected representatives to do something about this abhorrence — and spend a considerable amount of time campaigning for neo-liberal economic reforms of this universities vittles supply.
So whats the situation at the moment? Currently there are several places to get a snack during the day. Of these places, we can divide them into two groups.
Group One – Eurest.
Eurest, is a shortened form of European Restaurant brands, an international conglomerate of cafes, kitchens, restrurants and bars that supposedly provides excellent service internationally. KPR Catering, a massive local company owns the NZ franchise of Eurest, the sparse facilities here at Vic are a direct result of this commercial oligopoly. Eurest is factory food at its best, I would class its standards of service as lower than McDonald’s, and its business plans, management and attention to customer flow and satisfaction as severely distasteful. Who ever thought it would be a good idea, to have a crescent shaped aile for buying your food, right next to the main entrance (which was obviously only designed for a walk through capacity of about 25 students) is retarded. Its a traffic system worse than the Auckland motorway. Fix that shit. Soon.
The places that Eurest have a monopolisation over is, Mount Street Bar and Cafe, The Staff Club and No Meat Please — and they also get shitty when conferences try to bring their own catering in. Bastards.
Group Two – Sue Family
These group of renegades have a monopolisation over the other half of the student cafe battlefield. A family run business, it cant claim to have the backing of the corporate world. But it does have its sticky fingers in all the student’s pies. It runs Orb, Galleria and City Stop. I cant complain too much about their operations, they are obviously doing the best they can with the meagre facilities they have. Orb looks smaller than Harry Potters cupboard under the stairs — and seriously looks unsanitary. In saying that though, Galleria easily do the best coffee on campus. Too bad they are too bloody stingy to set up an eftpos machine. Seriously, there is no economic rationale for that, the increased traffic would easily cover the transaction charges. Galleria is economically shooting itself in the foot. Hooray.
Why are these two groups bad?
1. Prices can increase, because there is no need to undercut competitors
2. There is no variety in food, because the Students cant be fucked going anywhere else
3. The food is bad, because again, where are the Student’s going to get anything better?
4. There is no need to prioritise customer service, because, once again students are held by the balls
So whats the answer? How do we break these two behemoth duopolies. The answer is somehow removing the control the Union has over the tendering of food outlets around campus, and instead opening those areas up to the Market. There are various proprietors around Wellington who would jump at the chance to open up fresh businesses around campus.
Wellington is NZ’s coffee and cafe capital, Vic Uni has regularly 15,000 – 20,000 people on campus. Why we have to suffer such abhorrent and disgusting facilities is beyond me. Something needs to be done.
I call on VUWSA and the University to break up the Iron and Odious grip that the Union and the Sue Family has on our food and drinks provision. Open it up to private tendering by both professional catering firms AND small business proprietors. Make sure you have at least four different companies operating on campus. Ensure they cant collude. Something needs to change — and true market competition is the only way it will.