In my two
years of living in South Hedges, I have often, for various reasons, been in the
main lobby on the first floor between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m.
When in the lobby at this late hour, I have often observed a steady stream
of people coming and going from the tiny convenience store located down
the hallway. The residents of South Hedges flock to this convenience store
(the Hedge Hog) so that they don't have to leave the building in order to get
snacks to eat while doing their homework or spending time with their friends.
This would make sense if the snacks purchased at the Hedge Hog were the same
price as those purchased elsewhere or if there was not another store selling
the same goods close by, but that is not the case. There is a grocery
store, Town and Country, only a block from South Hedges, that sells all of the
same things that the Hedge Hog does and more, and at much lower prices.
Town and Country doesn't close
until 10:00, so all that it would take for the South Hedges residents to save a
large amount of money would be a little planning ahead and the willingness to
walk a single block. Most of the residents are not willing to do this for
several reasons. The first is that, instead of taking cash, the Hedge Hog
operates solely of the students' on-campus debit cards (Cat Cards) which are,
in most cases, paid for by the parents of the students as opposed to the
students themselves. The other factor is the general laziness of modern college
students. Many freshmen in college are used to having a constant supply of late
night snacks provided by their parents, and they are unwilling to leave their
building of residence in order to procure snacks late at night. Modern college
students, especially during their freshman year, are often lazy and willing to
spend as much of their parents' money as they can get while refusing to spend
any of their own unless they absolutely have to. If college freshmen were made
to have a little responsibility and handle their own money, a life
lesson that they will all eventually have to learn, perhaps they would be
willing to walk a single block in order to obtain the same goods at drastically
reduced prices.
