<p>Seeing so many remarks about food I wonder how feasible it is for students to band together and try to run a food stall themselves (taking turns between classes, maybe). From a microeconomics perspective it would seem to normalise the long-run economic profit often present on college campuses a bit (so often held by them greedy campus industry monopolies! :p), what with students complaining about high prices and all. However, I'm not hearing a lot about such ideas/endeavours on CC -- do they just tend to peter out? To me, it just seems the solution to unfair markets is enter them yourself and reap the unrealised economic profit. But I'm speaking as a naive youth who's entrepreneurship experience has been more or less running a lemonade stand (in my <em>really</em> young days).</p>
<p>probably unfeasible for a number of reasons --</p>
<p>1) red tape
A) your school probably wouldn't allow it for liability and sanitation reasons
B) the professionally-run food places on campus likely would prevent it via contracts with the school</p>
<p>2) you would need a business permit to run a business and the paperwork and so forth would be quite a commitment (doable, but not easy)</p>
<p>3) employees... do you really think you can get enough students to work for you at a wage your business could afford? Remember, most student employees tend toward laziness...</p>
<p>4) food... you'd need to build business relationships that would allow you to obtain the necessary food at low enough cost to be able to provide (with labor costs) a competitive product</p>
<p>Would there be something preventing someone from running it out of their dorm -- well for dorms that allow cooking equipment? (Mine as a first year probably won't...). Or from their car/truck in a parking lot? </p>
<p>I always thought you could get away by not with it (by not having a permit) if it was small-scale and experimental, then licence if you had viable business model. I mean, it's selling food here and there (initially) to students -- not like your clients would call the FDA right?</p>
<p>
[quote]
B) the professionally-run food places on campus likely would prevent it via contracts with the school
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's how they maintain their price-gouging economic profit! ;) </p>
<p>I don't envision this flourishing without eventual school sanction. I wouldn't have envisioned the contracted businesses being market tyrants -- I just thought the market wasn't saturated enough. </p>
<p>
[quote]
4) food... you'd need to build business relationships that would allow you to obtain the necessary food at low enough cost to be able to provide (with labor costs) a competitive product
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think that's quite possible. I mean, 40 dollars going into specially-made-with-love pasta (with student-modified sauce) would already provide food for 50-100 people -- I think.</p>
<p>The thing that sparked this was wondering what to do about the fact that my dining halls don't seem to be into spicy or ethnic cuisine; I think I'll try submitting them a recipe first though. ;)</p>