Over the past two years there have been plenty of complaints about Sodexo on the issues of the prices being too high, the service, and other things. During the 2008 school year, the price was one of the big complaints. It was such an issue that there was movement to boycott Sodexo over this issue of the prices. No significant change came from that.
However, from my point of view, there were other more important issues, one of which was the service. Since then, there have been many changes to Sodexo, being renovation of the food service area, change of management, some minor price modifications, and change of hour of operation. But, have any of them been beneficial to the students? In my opinion, no, nothing truly has changed. What they have done is just, in my point of view, shuffle things around.
First of all, the pricing is still pretty much the same. However, on closer examination some of the prices for instance of a salad of any size have gone up as with the deli sandwiches which are all at a set price of $4.19 before tax with the exception of the veggie which is $3.19 before tax. I am not happy about this because I do like to eat healthy and used to get a salad plate there before the renovation was made. At that time, I was actually getting more for my money then than I would now. With the deli sandwiches having one price for a single type of sandwich whether it be a corn beef on rye or a tuna wrap is the same price but not the same quality. At any Subway store there are different prices for different types of sandwiches depending on what you want with all of them being of good quality. Also, you have a choice of getting a six-inch or foot long sandwich there, which the sandwiches at Sodexo are practically six inchers, which are higher in price than the ones at Subway.
More recent experiences was the confusion over the price of a pita meal which stated a pita sandwich and drink for $3.99 and the woman serving us said it was actually for the meal. This made me, a professor and two girls duped into thinking that we could get a pita meal that is a sandwich with the sides and a drink for $3.99. When we got to the cashier she said it was $6.99 this immediately upset the two girls who refused to pay it and returned the meals. The professor complained that the sign that was posted there and what that server said was misleading and nothing was really done about that. When one of the managers was spoken to about it, nothing was done to correct the problem. Even more recently was the lack of service there. There were two people who waited to be served at entrée station. They were clearly seen by the other workers at the other stations, who did nothing to help them or get somebody to help them from what I observed and were still waiting there while I went back to my table in the cafeteria.
Besides that, the hours there are definitely not for early birds. Because the food serving area doesn’t open up until ten in the morning and there are usually people there who want something to eat before they get to class. This is not good for the students and Sodexo as well because there are a number of people who want to get breakfast. Sodexo does serve breakfast but from what I have seen a good amount of it is thrown away.
From what I have seen since I have been here at NEIU is that the changes made at Sodexo have not really made any significant changes that have taken any consideration for the students at hand. The prices are still the same with some subtle increases in some items. Service is about the same, which needs to be much improved because Sodexo is losing money with this lousy service, by not being attentive enough to customer needs. These changes plus opening up earlier will improve things for Sodexo and the students.