Cornell on-campus cafe raises prices after state-mandated minimum wage hike
Student: “It’s annoying that the drinks are so expensive…. if you want coffee, you have to be willing to pay around five bucks.”
I make instant coffee in my office rather than pay the exorbitant coffee prices in local cafes. (I’m also too lazy to walk to get coffee in the faculty lounge, which is of questionable quality anyway.)
But then again, I’m not as rich as many of the students, who think nothing of dropping $4 on a latte, because they don’t actually “pay” for it, they just show a barcode on their phone and presto, it gets charged to someone somewhere (probably parents).
The Cornell Sun reports that students may start feeling the pinch after an on-campus cafe upped prices by about a quarter (25 cents) on various items including coffee to cover a state-mandated minimum wage hike:
Temple of Zeus, a popular on-campus cafe, has increased some of its prices by roughly a quarter after New York State raised the minimum wage.
The items affected include coffee, soup and some snacks, according to Keith Mercovich, the Temple of Zeus manager.
… However, though the new policy is advantageous for the staff, there will be an undesirable effect on consumers….
Simran Mahanta ’21, who visits the cafe about once a week, said, “It’s annoying that the drinks are so expensive. [Many people have] meal swipes, but if you want coffee, you have to be willing to pay around five bucks.” The cost of living can be a difficult for the average university student who, according to Cornell’s Financial Aid Office, is already paying an approximate $5,766 annually for dining alone.
Julia Greenberg ’18, a Zeus student employee, also said that there will be an effect for the “people who come in and get multiple cups of coffee a day.” ….
Students say that despite this possibility, it is nearly impossible to significantly adjust their spending patterns because dining options in Ithaca are so limited.
“Things are generally overpriced,” Aleena Ismail ’21 said, “[So] I don’t always have a choice to spend money or not.”
I haven’t calculated the cost of my instant coffee, but it’s pennies per large mug. And it’s quite good, I get fancy European types over the internet, usually Jacobs, Tastle, or Douwe Egberts, and they’re almost as good as the real thing.
The only way I’m getting a $5 coffee at Cafe Zeus is if someone else is paying. Like a visiting Legal Insurrection reader.
[Featured Image: Cafe Zeus Facebook]
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The only way I’m getting a $5 coffee at Cafe Zeus is if someone else is paying. Like a visiting Legal Insurrection reader.
Sorry, Professor, I donated my $5 to support the minimum wage Legal Insurrection contributors.
😉
Drink instant like the professor.
It’s healthier than regular coffee.
“According to a 2012 paper in Food Chemistry, the way instant coffee is produced concentrates some antioxidant compounds, including phenols and flavonoids, resulting in an even “higher content of these substances when compared to other types of coffee.” And a lab study published in the same journal in 2013 found that instant coffees differed little from fresh coffee in levels of chlorogenic acid, an antioxidant that may have cardiovascular benefits….”
http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food/article/instant-coffee-benefits
At an art show last weekend, I was asked to sign a petition to raise the minimum wage. I declined with a snort.
I have been watching the minimum wage hikes since my very first job at 14 – fifty years ago. Every single time that the minimum wage has gone up everything else has gone up too – gas, groceries, eating out, electricity, rent, EVERYTHING.
Worse, while those who are making minimum wage perhaps “gain ground”, those who have put in the time and energy to get a few penny-ante “pay raises” under their belt end up losing, sometimes quite a bit, simply because a minimum wage increase does not require increases for those already making more than the new minimum.
I’ve been telling those pushing for minimum wage increases this for a decade now. I guess they are simply going to have to learn by watching minimum wage increases themselves for the next 50 years or so.
They’ll have plenty of time to watch on “funemployment” while the robots that replace them work.
Me too (central Florida). They were trying to get it on the November ballot. I told the fellow that I did not support their effort. He said I could still vote no. My reply was I did not want to encourage foolishness by allowing it for a vote. As most people are idiots, I expect it to pass and so don’t want to encourage it.
The amount of economic illiteracy out there is astounding…
Yep, that’s the one!
just drink a Coca-Cola instead…
I’d buy the prof a cup of coffee at this fancy place any day. Anyway, here goes…
‘”The cost of living can be a difficult for the average university student who, according to Cornell’s Financial Aid Office, is already paying an approximate $5,766 annually for dining alone.”‘
Wow, $110/week on food, times are tough.
“Students say … it is nearly impossible to significantly adjust their spending patterns because dining options in Ithaca are so limited.”
They learn well from our federal annual budget, which seems to be incapable of ever being reduced. It’s like they’re immune from real-world laws of economics. Doing with less doesn’t seem like an option.
In the end though, in New York, with this new minimum wage law, it’ll be the more economically marginal shops that will be forced to close or scale-back operations due to the artificially-increased labor costs, and youth unemployment will spike. Once again, the little-guy takes it on the chin for the feel-good policies of our elite overlords.
Sorry. Way more than $110 a week on food. Remember, that $5,766 only covers the 30 weeks that school is in session, so quite close to $200 a week. Which, BTW, is more than the half+ of our seniors who qualify for Foodstamps receive for an entire month.
You are not understanding the food plan. My son, a freshman, gets three swipes a day. He is an athlete. His lifting captains scheduled lifting early in the morning in the fall. He had an immediate class afterward. He missed the swipes for breakfast every lifting morning. He now has practice every day for lacrosse. He misses his dinner swipe at the cafeteria often and has limited options. He does not get a refund. The meal plan money is not cash in your pocket where the student gets a budget for the grocery store. It is a racket like everything else.
That depends on where you go. Some universities have set meal times. You show up, you eat. You don’t, tough. My alma mater has a program with local restaurants where you can use your swipe at a local restaurant up to a certain dollar amount at your own convenience.
Sounds to me like your son needs to either start a movement to fix the meal plan or simply get off-campus housing or one of the coop dorms where he can cook his own meals.
Really? One of the special-genius students at Cornell actually said the “dining options in Ithaca are so limited”?
Certainly hasn’t been my experience in regular visits down there.
Perhaps he/she/ze has been raised in an even-more-special bubble world than Ithaca, N.Y.
The poor, poor dears.
Hey, I know what you kiddies should do.
Keep pushing for a HIGHER minimum wage (say, $50/hour) and see what that does for the price of your cups of coffee. You’re college students. Maybe it’ll go down.
It’s worth a shot, right??
Coffee is an abomination. Even the smell is distasteful. Hot chocolate is the way to go.
I’m sorry but I must downvote this comment.
My second will contact your second to arrange our duel at your earliest convenience.
Make it at sunrise, after you’ve had your coffee. He’ll still be sleepy from his chocolate.
The usual challenge was: “Pistols for two, cofee for one, at dawn and order a hearse.”
I don’t tolerate caffeine well (particularly the downswing afterwards) even though I like the coffee. That puts a big dampener on the experience from my perspective.
I don’t tolerate the lack of caffeine well.
Something that actually worked for me. I read many years ago that rather than coffee and apple would wake you up the same and even give you more energy. Tried it and was surprised how well it worked.
Now if only I could have gotten past the cold of an apple in the winter. So it’s still a warm drink for me in the morning.
In any case, at home I’m a tea drinker only. Outside the house I’m a coffee drinker. No rhyme or reason for it, it just is.
Take him to the gates and stone him.
(downvote all in good fun)
I used to feel that way (even made it through the service without drinking coffee) BUT I did “just” start drinking coffee (at least 14 oz a day) when I turned 50(ish). There have just been TOO many studies showing the health benefits of coffee. It has been shown to reduce your risk of many cancers and other illnesses.
Some of the studies show marked increases in life expectancy for coffee drinkers versus non-drinkers.
I strongly recommend that you do a little research…
Like many others such studies are only suggestive, not conclusive. If you gained the impression that they were conclusive then you didn’t read the article well, or it was poorly written.
It’s not that hard to find a “study” that give results directly contradicting another study.
The only other abomination, beside those stated in the Bible, is Rosie O’Donnell in a tutu!
I’d DieJustAsHappy without ever having that image……..
Good one. Swan Lake would never be the same!
Being old and forgetful has it’s benefits
Coffee is an abomination.
Indeed. It’s no surprise that something openly sold as “fresh ground” tastes like mud. Fresh mud, but mud nonetheless.
The place is properly named “Temple of Zeus”. For coffee is ambrosia. The nectar of the Gods.
Says me, who drinks four cups a day.
Fresh ground comes out of my grinder. Gotta love that Black Rifle Coffee.
Don’t have a dog in this fight; my caffeine comes cold and green.
Say what?
Tea.
Mountain Dew.
I don’t drink coffee ( I prefer tea) but I love the aroma.
I will say that coffee breath can be quite noxious.
“Things are generally overpriced,” Aleena Ismail ’21 said, “[So] I don’t always have a choice to spend money or not.”
I was unaware that Ithaca had no grocery stores.
Buy Vinacafe 3 in 1 Vietnamese instant coffee. You get it in most Asian stores for about $2.50 a bag (20 packets) or order it online for $6.
Back on topic, maybe some of these parents should be asking why high schools don’t teach basic life skills like cooking any more?
“Student: “It’s annoying that the drinks are so expensive…. if you want coffee, you have to be willing to pay around five bucks.”
Congratulations! You’ve just been introduced to the reality of SJWism.
…because dining options in Ithaca are so limited.
Funniest line I’ve read this week.
Economics are not a strong point for most liberals. I live in a nice gated community here in Arizona. We have one member of our HOA board who, prior to retirement, was a producer for NPR or PBS (can’t remember which) in Minnesota. She used to work with Garrison Keillor and, Needless to say is a flaming liberal.
Our area has a guarded entry gate 24/7. Since the increase to $15/hour we have decided that it is just too expensive to maintain a guard at the gate and, instead, will replace the guards with a automated gate. She is shocked that this wonderful increase of the min wage is going to cause these people to lose their jobs instead of getting over $30K a year for doing nothing that can’t be done with an automated gate.
Now she is in charge of getting bids to build the automated gate. Heh…. between that and good ol Garrison’s sex harrasment problems she is finding her grip on mindless liberalism slipping. Heh.
You should bust her balls and ask why a good liberal is looking at bids for building a wall. I love busting balls and this would be my go to for months.
Oh, such a great idea. I am sure she does not have a gun or any kind of home defense. If she bitches about home security, I will tell her to take a class and get a gun. I love it, thanks.
Be careful busting the balls of a member of a HOA board. Especially a Leftist one. They will not face you verbally with arguments. The Leftist way is to use the power of her position to ruin you financially or your quality of life. Leftists are the enemy and detest those who are not.
Now she is in charge of getting bids to build the automated gate.
Perhaps the ideal job … for someone who is going to sabotage the project.
The reason Liberals are able to pervert every effort to advance Western civilization is that non-Liberals let them do it.
Or you could brew your own.
“Jobs Americans won’t do..”
The cafe should list two prices: normal price and “living wage” price. Maybe the snowflakes will feel better knowing they’re robbing themselves.
This is brilliant. Make the SJWs put their own money where their orifice is.
In my position in public ed., one of my jobs was to issue calculated salary statements at the end of each fiscal school year for the new up coming one. They (faculty) were to acknowledge it by signing and returning the notice in order to place the new salary in active status.
During one period of negotiations spanning two years, administration decided to add a line representing all compensation paid both in salary and benefits which on average raised the total compensation package cost to the tax payer by 30 percent (Ins. Prem., Matching Fica, Contractual Benies etc.). Ex: $50,000. became $65,000.
Too say the least…All Hell Broke Loose. I had to re-do all of them in order to get a signed copy back…BUT the point was made at the bargaining table.
If my son receives an acceptance letter from Cornell next month and decides to vist the campus, I will gladly treat the Professor to cup of gourmet coffeee when we come!
In that case I’ll get a double espresso
“The only way I’m getting a $5 coffee at Cafe Zeus is if someone else is paying. Like a visiting Legal Insurrection reader.” That would be me, this year, when I visit my mother on her 102nd birthday (if you’re in town, unfortunately last year you were not). But not at Zeus – Ithaca Bakery would be my preference ! : >)
I doubt the hike was 25 cents. Much more likely 25%.
Tastle?! Oy vey, Prof, you’re being ripped off. Tastle is neither fancy nor European, nor even legal. It’s a garage operation by some yiddele in Borough Park, and it’ll exist only until the holder of the trademark it’s so blatantly ripping off notices and sues. I’m actually surprised that hasn’t happened yet.
It’s labeled as from the EU.
So the guy found some cheap factory in Poland or somewhere to source it from. It’s still the same garage on McDonald Ave, and sooner or later the obvious trademark holder will get wind of his operation and shut him down.
My first job was $2.10 per hour min. wage. I was 16 and in school. If you are 30 and working for min wage there is something wrong with you, your job performance or you have NO skills at all. Increasing min wage results in Cost Push Inflation. Everyone except those on min wage pay the price.
I was 16 and started at $1.65 at McDonalds in NYC and that lasted only a few weeks maybe a couple of months at most. The wage increases were quite regular and based on hours worked over length of employment and merit. Overtime, holiday pay, learning to do different jobs, making yourself available to cover others when needed, asking for extra shifts…you learn how to build a nice little paycheck and be a HS kid with some cash in your pocket and cash in the bank. Minimum wage is a starting point in most cases although some positions really are not worth a wage more than the minimum wage.
“… However, though the new policy is advantageous for the staff, there will be an undesirable effect on consumers….”
Actually there really is not advantage for the people who work their. Sure, they get a pay increase. But now NY state has made everything more expensive so it’s a wash.
I’m amazed how supposedly intelligent people can’t put two and two together. I remember watching an interview when I was back in Kali after SF voters decided to raise the minimum wage. The interviewee owned a comic book store. He was “happy” minimum wage workers would be making a “living wage,” but he was going to have to close his business because he couldn’t afford the increased labor costs and he couln’t run his shop by himself.
This was a common reaction; all sorts of people were saying that they were “happy” that minimum wage workers would be making more money, but because of the increase in the minimum wage they were going to have to fire some or all of their workers. How can you possibly be happy you just voted to put one of your employees out of a job. Now they’ve gone from $9/hour to the true minimum wage. $0/hour.
I saw a sigh in an SF Subway store window that said due to the increase in the minimum wage they would no longer offer the five dollar meal deal. So if their minimum wage workers couln’t afford to eat Subway’s own product before, now they still can’t.
Long hours, university politics, university back staffing: All part of the job.
Instant coffee? An attack on the foundations of civilization!
Get a little countertop coffee maker and have the real thing 🙂
If there had been a maximum wage law implemented instead – they could have lowered the price of coffee by $.50. And isn’t it ironic that the well paid are complaining about the price of a coffee and the low paid are complaining about the price of food, housing and health care. Me thinks the “let-them-eat-cake” moment has almost arrived on our shores.
I make latte every day: a mug of milk in the microwave, with instant coffee stirred in. Delicious!
I like oily coffee, and there’s no oil in the instant stuff.
I got a Saeco XSmall on sale at Costco, jiggered it for a slightly finer grind and use the Cuban whole bean espresso blend from Costco, and it’s pretty good, close to coffee shop quality and very oily.
I’ve got a sawbuck that says most of the complaining Cornell students who are actually registered to vote are–wait for it!– Democrats.
Amirite or amirite?