Why Students Choose Cox

            Why is it that so many upper classmen end up eating at Emory’s Cox Hall? After all, there are so many other options around campus where people can eat. For example, Emory village, a very short walk from campus, has several fantastic options, especially for college students. There is the beloved Chipotle, Lucky’s Burgers, Panera, Dave’s subs, and Slice N ’Pint among others. In addition to this Emory Point is a very short distance away with more delicious options. So, what is the deal here, because the prices aren’t any different and you even get an Emory student discount at most of the restaurants. I interviewed several students who regularly attend Cox and some of their answers were rather surprising.

            I started with a simple question, “Why did you choose Cox for lunch today?” The answers followed the pattern of, “I didn’t have time to go anywhere else.” “It’s the most convenient option.” Or, “my meal plan has lots of Dooley dollars.” All of these are very reasonable answers, however, once I started challenging them, they began to question why they actually choose Cox.

            Through the interviews I conducted, I found that the reasoning for eating at Cox was really just a lack of awareness and laziness. When I say lack of awareness, I am referring to the variation in price between Cox and local restaurants. In addition, the health benefits from eating at other restaurants. When I asked students if they ever compared the prices of Cox and other local restaurants that use the Emory student discount, the overwhelming answer was something along the lines of, “No I’ve never actually looked at that.” Then, I went on to ask about the ingredients and the quality of food used at Cox compared to local restaurants like Panera and most people responded saying they never thought about it and even worse, they just don’t care! Now, it is hard to present an argument to someone who tells you, “I don’t care,” but, I did open the eyes of a few people. I think going forward, there will be a few more people who evaluate the prices of Cox food compared to other local restaurants and a few more students who benefit from the quality ingredients other local restaurants use.

            Now, I’m sure there are many students who prefer Cox to other local restaurants because after all, there were people I interviewed who said they just like Cox. However, after asking these questions, I believe there are many students at Emory who don’t understand what meal plans they are signing up for and how overpriced they actually are. In addition, these students don’t understand how many great healthy options there are around campus. We ought to make this information available for every Emory student so they can truly understand what they are getting in to. This is a topic that I would love to explore in a future assignment.