As Chancellor Wrighton keeps e-mailing, Washington University’s endowment has hit some choppy waters. The recent downturn in the economy has hit our institution hard, with our endowment hemorrhaging at two-thirds of its onetime worth. And with the new South 40 House up and running, the operating costs of our university are undoubtedly higher than ever. What is our university to do?

As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. While we aren’t running out of money yet, why not try to gain back some of our losses? In my opinion, a perfect way to do this can be described in two words: alternate vending. Why limit our vending machine options to food and drink? We can charge the consumer for the availability of certain items in specialized locations. The campus bookstore has been capitalizing on this principle for years.

This proposal probably sounds eccentric, but compared to the proliferation of vending machines in other cultures we look quite uncreative. In Japan, the motherland of the cultural quirk, vending machines exist for flowers, kerosene, batteries, cameras, fried foods, phone chargers, beer and liquor, and even used panties that have been worn by schoolgirls. If you don’t believe me, look it up on the Internet.  Surely we can think of something besides Coke and M&Ms to sell.

Ideas that I think would be useful could be Visine tears in Whispers, cheap rain ponchos in various locations, Sharpies and X-Acto knife refill blades at the art school, miniature staplers, hair ties, small flashlights, Band-Aids for those days when you just had to wear uncomfortable shoes, cheap sunglasses, sunscreen and maybe some Advil or Tylenol (again, those would probably sell the most in Whispers).

Setting up vending machines, while having a high start-up cost, has a very low maintenance cost and would probably turn a profit in the end—not to mention the increased availability of small but useful items for students. Also, with the universality of the campus card and the “free money” mindset it evokes, higher-priced items would have a good chance of selling well.

One of the problems with this unorthodox proposal would be aesthetics. Vending machines aren’t the most beautiful things in the world—their hulking masses of metal and coils manage to look both shabby and sterile at the same time. However, the school that gave us the artistically-sculpted fake fire pit in the DUC Courtyard could probably find a way to class up a vending machine if need be. Another problem is that it seems like Coke machines and your standard candy dispensers have already snatched up all of the prime vending-machine realty. But again, it’s not that big of a problem; I think once we realize space could be money, we would find a lot more of it.

Alternate vending: an unusual idea? Yes. Seemingly out of the blue? Maybe. But why not? At its core, it’s nothing more than the idea of giving us, the consumers, what we need in a more convenient way. Imagine being in Whispers at three in the morning and being able to buy eye drops for the dry contacts that come out every time you blink, and then being able to buy ibuprofen for the raging, caffeine-fueled headache you have. Or being in Seigle Hall, which is an island unto itself, and being able to buy Band-Aids for your awful blisters without having to walk all the way to the bookstore. As far as a cheap and easily sustainable way of making money, expanding vending choices certainly makes sense to me.

Ann is a junior in Arts & Sciences. She can be reached via e-mail at aejohnson@gmail.com.

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Tags: alternate vending, endowment, Financial Crisis, revenue, vending machines

This entry was posted on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 2:48 am and is filed under Forum, Staff Columnists. You can follow any responses to this entry through this feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.