Any University of Maryland, Baltimore County student knows what it is like to be studying in the Commons building, craving a bag of chips and a drink or two. While they know that they could get a meal at Sushi Do, or Copperhead Jacks, they decide to take a trip to the Yum Shoppe: a convenience store right under the UMBC bookstore, with a large selection of snacks, beverages, and candy.
At a university where the majority of the students are commuters, some even commuting from a distance of over an hour, they tend to want to still experience the college atmosphere by studying with friends, but once a student gets hungry, that desperation for food usually cuts into their bank account.
What makes the Yum Shoppe different from other convenience stores? Price tags, but more so, the lack thereof. When you walk into the Yum Shoppe, hoping to find a bag of chips, or maybe even a healthy granola bar, you end up not realizing how much money you’re about to spend that day. Sour Patch Kids and a Minutemaid juice could either be $5.00 or $15.00 all together, but you’ll never know, because this convenience store does not have any price tags on their products.
The question of this strange phenomenon at UMBC, is why? What is the actual reason for not displaying prices for struggling college students, who might not be able to afford a $5.00 bag of pretzels?
The psychological tricks that UMBC’s bookstore uses, consists of hiking up prices, and knowing that nobody will do anything about it. They know that students will still continue to buy the snacks, because when you’re hungry and need food, commuting an hour back home and spending money on gas or public transportation is going to be either more expensive or the same as burning some cash on some junk food.
Part of what makes the whole experience feel like a scam is the way the Yum Shoppe toys with the brain of a college student. By removing price tags, they force students into impulse purchases, because who really wants to stop and ask a cashier how much Sour Patch Kids cost? The lack of transparency makes it easier to justify grabbing “just one more thing,” until the total flashes across the screen and it’s far higher than you expected.
When reached out to, a UMBC bookstore representative Erin McGonigle states, “Because we source products from a wide variety of vendors, sometimes the same item from multiple vendors depending on availability, pricing can fluctuate frequently (sometimes weekly).”
This statement in itself is true, however what followed seemed to be an interesting continuation.
“The retail market itself is also constantly shifting due to supply costs, tariffs, and other economic factors. When we reorder items, our costs often change, and in turn, we adjust prices to reflect those changes…If we placed price tags on every item, we would need to update them constantly with each new shipment, which is not sustainable with our current resources.”
Although there may be circumstances in which exceptions are made, Maryland commercial law, specifically Title 14, Subtitle 1 on unit pricing, provides guidance on how prices must be displayed to consumers. Section 14-104 outlines that sellers are required to disclose the total price or unit price of each item in one of several ways:
(1) If the item is visible conspicuously to the consumer, by attachment of a stamp, tag, or label:
(i) Directly on the item or its package; or
(ii) Directly adjacent to the item or on the shelf on which the item is displayed; or
(2) If the item is not visible conspicuously to the consumer or if the stamp, tag, or label would not be visible conspicuously to the consumer, by a sign or list which contains the price information and is visible conspicuously to the consumer.”
In simple terms, if a customer can see the product, by law, the entity must provide the pricing of the product.
There is obvious exceptions to this law such as, if there is a small volume of sales, it is an independent business, there is a low percentage of revenue from covered goods, and if it is family owned. However, all of the above must be met in order to be absolved of this law.
Although accusing the Yum Shoppe of breaking the law is quite ridiculous, it still makes UMBC students feel uncomfortable when not knowing what they are going to pay when they get to the checkout counter.
What makes the Yum Shoppe’s position especially interesting, is the mention of the lack of “current resources.” Is the Yum Shoppe understaffed, where there is nobody available to start tagging products? If so, why aren’t there any job applications available on Handshake (a job hunting site that directly partners with UMBC) for both the bookstore, and the Yum Shoppe?
Additionally, if the Yum Shoppe isn’t understaffed, a simple pricing gun costs about $40.00 online, and with the amount of money they bring in every day, what is stopping them from buying a pricing gun and giving students the dignity of not having to ask a cashier how much every single snack they might want to buy is?
As college students, we already pay so much just to attend classes, why aren’t we afforded the luxury of at least having fair and accessible prices on a bag of Doritos?
Disclosure: anything written in the opinions section of The Retriever reflects the personal opinions of the individual writer, and not on the organization as a whole.
Arpa Shahnazarian is a senior mathematics and economics double major, and serves as the editor-in-chief of The Retriever
Contact Arpa at arpas1@umbc.edu
