why vending machines are unrealistic in schools

By Lillian Romero

Vending machines in schools hold overpriced snacks for desperate kids who are willing to spend $1.25 on one single cookie as compared to $3 for a pack of six cookies in a grocery store. It's either choose to go broke or choose to go hungry. 

I understand that the holders of these vending machines still have to make their money and also make enough money to afford to continue to buy snacks for these vending machines, at the same time can't you find something that is more understanding and considerate to the buyers of these snacks.

No one wants to spend almost $2 on a bag of chips for fun. We all know how these small single bags of chips usually are, they typically are full of air and have maybe 10 chips at most in them and most of them aren't even full sized chips. Liberty high school is a part of this problem and I am not a fan.

Let's start with our school cheez-its. Here in Liberty high schools vending machines cheez-its are being bought for $1.50 per pack, whereas if you go to your local Walmart you can get 12 packs of cheez-its for $6.48 which is $0.54 per pack. That is pretty much an entire dollar difference, which may not seem like alot but added up repeatedly that does some damage. 

Keep in mind that this issue is being targeted towards teens, who typically have jobs that pay lower, who are also running on low sleep most of the time and are often in need of a break from staring at screens all day at early times of the day.

Now let's look at the chip prices as they are one of the most bought things from our vending machines. Our school sets our chip prices at $1.50 each. At Walmart you can get a pack of 40 chips for $15.70, meaning it is $0.39 per bag. 

Not to mention the lack of variety we get for these overpriced snacks, all around these vending machines do more harm than good in school environments and they need to be further looked at as they are just a money pit.