A-Tisket, A-Tasket: What’s a market basket?

    With the cost of so many things increasing, a fair amount of belt-tightening is going around for both individuals and institutions.  For many, that budget trimming starts with the biggest expenditure – food.  So, what do you do if your business is food, specifically feeding hundreds or thousands of hungry students, faculty, and staff?  How do you cut costs without sacrificing quality?  How do you manage a wide range of dietary needs while protecting your bottom line?  A good place to start is to use benchmarking data.  Benchmarking involves comparing your institution’s data to that of like or similar institutions in your region and around the country to determine where it stands on product pricing.  That is where Market Basket analysis comes in.  A Market Basket analysis helps you compare apples to, well, apples.  The wide range of food and beverage items listed in the analysis are all common to the Dining Service industry to allow many different institutions to benefit from accurate, standardized research.  The question becomes where to go for a Market Basket analysis that is not simply generic to all lines of food service but rather is specific to your institution/services.

     Part of Campus Dining & Corporate Dining, Inc.’s annual Pricing Study includes a Market Basket analysis.  Institutions around the U.S. are invited to submit their prices for the same items, and that data is then analyzed to create pricing benchmarks.  Sometimes what is found is surprising.  For example, this year’s study for Campus Dining, inc. found, among other things, that the total of all Market Basket items was nearly identical for both public and private institutions.  Historically, the cost of tuition, fees, and room and board at private institutions has been more expensive than at public institutions.  In fact, in the 2021-22 academic year, the average cost at a private four-year institution was $55,800 per year compared to $27,330 (in-state) at a public institution(1). 

     The study went beyond food prices to look at trends in student meal plan use to answer questions like “Are our students using all of their meal swipes?” or “Are our students leaving meal swipes unused by the end of the year?”  The study data showed that students used a bit more than half of their meal swipes. The Missed Meal Factor, or the percentage of meal swipes that students do not use in an academic year, was just over 45%, which is up slightly from the data we collected in 2021.

    While food cost increases are expected to slow down this year compared to last year, the USDA still estimates a 5.8% increase in food prices in 2023(2). So how do you find the middle ground between what works for your Dining Services operation and what students, faculty, and staff want and need?  Is sacrificing product quality or customer service an unavoidable reality of post-pandemic dining operations?  It can be difficult to find these answers without sifting through mountains of data or searching through a labyrinth of best practices recommendations.  Even then, the information will not be tailored to your Dining Service operation.  Campus Dining & Corporate Dining, Inc. is here to help you find the answers that you need and will partner with you to tailor a solution that can help you deliver a top-notch dining experience for your campus community.  If you’d like more information on how we can help your institution, please reach out to us below.

1.     Dickler, J. (2022, February 23). Why Choosing Between Public and Private College Based on Tuition Can Be a Mistake.                                                                                                                             

2.     McLachlan, M., & Sweitzer, M. (2023, July 25). Summary findings. USDA ERS - Summary Findings.