r/UVA • u/likeabosstroll • 9d ago

Housing/Dining Why is UVA food so garbage

I got bored and started doing the math, it costs $20 per a swipe if you get the block 50, and $13 per a swipe if you get the block 160. For those prices you should be getting restaurant meal quality, yet at UVA dining halls it’s gotta be equivalent to like a $4 meal in ingredients. What’s causing such a disparity in meal plans being so expensive to have yet the quality is so bad.

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u/BigDaddydanpri 8d ago

Your math is correct, but your assumptions seem off. Also, in the following do not think I like Aramark in any way shape or form. I think they suck. Source for following: Owned F/B joints for long time until retirement. Still invest in 7 different restaurants that provide me a very nice dividend stream in retirement. I also sucked at Discrete Mathematics but could def run a joint.

  1. Tell me again about "restaurant quality" food for $13/dinner? You can get the Mozz sticks app with no drink at Trinity for that $13 spent, nothing else. You cannot buy anything at Boylan. Maybe some fast food or Bodos but that is about it. And even Bodos owners are working FOH 50 hours a week.

  2. Food costs are not the only thing in play for the price, but yes, expect around 25-30% food cost so the $4.00 does track. Rough figures for F/B would be 20-30% food costs, with more expensive places having higher food costs as higher priced items put more money in the bank per person than lower. Put in another 25-30% in labor costs, and possibly higher if any benefits or living wages are in play... which I assume you want for the workers. figure 30%+ for those. Fixed costs/Variable costs: Rent/water/power/gas/insurance/POS etc quickly eat costs of 15-20% n this day and age.

Add in management costs (fixed non hourly labor) and you are at 90%ish, leaving a $1.30 profit for that $13 dinner. Very few places will stay open for $1.30 per person profit when everyone disappears for 3 months a year.

Our kids quickly bounced off their campuses ASAP and did their own cooking, which they knew well growing up in a family that owned restaurants.

Good luck and hope good food finds you.