by Terence Poon

   When sushi returned to Wesleyan at WeShop this past Wednesday, all fifty six-piece packages, each priced at $5.49, sold out.

   The next shipment, which will have 192 packages, will arrive on campus today. It will include California, tuna and vegetarian rolls.

   “We will have shipments every Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and will adjust the quantity available based on sales,” said Sherwood Lincoln, Senior Director of Campus Dining.

   Sushi-loving students welcomed the return of this favorite to campus. “I love sushi; having sushi sold is definitely a good idea,” said sushi loving sophomore Shepherd Smith.

   This development reverses Aramark’s decision last semester to remove sushi from the Campus Center. Before this decision, some 900 packages of sushi used to be sold weekly, although some were stolen.

   The controversy over whether on not to sell sushi in the Campus Center first began in the fall of 2000, and was reported in the Argus on November 14, 2000. At the time, Aramark had increased food prices and stopped serving certain foods on campus due to theft.

   Today though, Lincoln chose to explain the cessation of sushi on campus because of issues concerning food freshness, rather than problems with theft.

   “Vendor and safety issues, not theft, made us stop selling sushi. The Boston supplier stopped shipping sushi in refrigerated trucks, which could compromise food safety,” Lincoln said.

   Aramark has since sourced a Hartford sushi supplier, who uses refrigerated trucks to keep the sushi fresh en route so that sushi aficionados can enjoy them at WeShop.

   At $5.49, each six-piece sushi package costs fifty cents more than before, causing some concern among students about price, quality, and variety of the sushi being sold.

   “The sushi seems a little expensive. I’m also very selective about the sushi I take, so the type of sushi they sell is going to be important,” said Gregory Proechel ’05.

   Proechel, who said he would be willing to pay four dollars for each sushi package, also asked if fresh sushi would be delivered everyday. 

   Others like Ayako Ezaki ’05 found the price to be reasonable. ”The price is good; back in Japan, each piece of sushi costs about one dollar,” Ezaki said.

   Aramark has increased the price of sushi because the new supplier is selling it more expensively.

   “Our cost price has increased by fifty cents and so we have increased retail price by the same amount,” Lincoln said.

   The price of sushi, one of students’ most often voiced concerns, remains a focus for Aramark, according to Lincoln.

   “Once per semester, we compare the prices of some 150 items sold in WeShop against those from three different stores in Middletown. We do a similar comparison once every summer for the Campus Center,” Lincoln said.

   “Our target is for our prices to be the median, if not lower. So far, we have been within our target range,” he said.

   Aramark has not yet compared its sushi prices against those of shops in Middletown. “But we will certainly do that,” Lincoln said.

   The choice of benchmarks is significant as well. Whereas students who bemoan high prices may compare against large-scale distributors, Aramark compares against similarly sized convenience stores and eateries, whose prices are higher than those of huge chains. 

   “WeShop is a convenience store trying to be a grocery store. Even though it’s the second largest in Aramark’s network, it can’t compete in terms of sales volume with the likes of Stop and Shop and push prices down,” said Lincoln.

   This focus on keeping its prices comparable with others‚ appears to contradict the view that Aramark prices its products higher because of theft. This view is true to only some extent.

   “Food that goes bad or is not sold or is stolen are considered as ‘shrinkage’ and these add to product cost. If  product cost rises, we need to re-evaluate prices,” said Lincoln. All in all, food theft rates on campus are no more severe than at comparable institutions.”

   While Aramark tolerates some degree of theft, in the future it may remove foods that are stolen in great quantities.

   “Even though theft may be a little more serious at the Campus Center, overall Wesleyan’s theft rate is pretty much the same as at many other campuses,” Lincoln said.