As you can probably tell from the title, this post is not going to be a happy one. But I am going to ease you, wonderful readers, into my anger slowly.
First, let me apologize for not writing in an entire month (especially during the summer, when I am really not that busy). I planned to write about my Alaska trip but never got around to it. I do plan on writing about it soon, but first there is something else I need to address:
Just exactly how angry I am at UA.
I woke up to a tweet from one of my best friends, Caroline, that one of our favorite restaurants in Tuscaloosa has closed down. It saddens me to say that restaurant is Crimson Cafe.
I can't pinpoint the first time I ate at Crimson Cafe, but I know it was during my freshman year at UA. Their food was great, especially the pizza bagels Katie and I always got and their drinks and lemon squares. I loved that they had enough vegetarian options to keep me full and happy!
Admittedly, I often purchased my food with Dining Dollars. (I used my debit card or cash when I could, though, because they offered a 20% discount for doing so!)
Sadly, those Dining Dollars are the main reason that The Crimson Cafe is shutting down after 18 years of business. Here is the link to the Tuscaloosa News article explaining exactly why they are closing. To summarize, Crimson Cafe must pay Aramark 21% of all Dining Dollar transactions. TWENTY-ONE PERCENT.
While I understand that Crimson Cafe chose to take Dining Dollars (originally paying Aramark 15 percent of transactions sometime in the 1990's), it is clear they had to make this choice to stay in business. When students are your target demographic, you have to do whatever you can to keep them coming back.
Students are paying with their tuition, not by choice, to get $300 in Dining Dollars each semester. I've heard the argument that you can get that money back at the end of the year if you don't spend it all, but that doesn't matter in the moment when the only food money some students have is their Dining Dollars. They have no choices other than to buy food at inflated prices on campus or to dine at one of the few restaurants that accepts Dining Dollars.
Most students aren't aware that over twenty percent of their money is going not to the restaurants they patronize but instead to the ever-looming Aramark. I, personally, would prefer that my money pay for my food. Call me crazy, but that's how I feel. Aramark has taken over dining on and around campus, and it disgusts me.
It really upsets me that my school, The University of Alabama, did nothing to help Crimson Cafe. Especially after the tornado! The administration can try to shift blame to Aramark, but the truth is that they hired them to monopolize dining. The Strip is losing so much of what UA students love, and our school has no desire to stop it. In fact, maybe the University is happy to see another local business gone. They sure seemed to want Lai Lai off the Strip earlier this year!
When I drive through campus and the surrounding area with my mom, she barely recognizes anything. The Strip is completely different than it was when she was at UA not so long ago, and I don't think that's a good thing. As if the tornado didn't steal enough from our community on April 27! Now it seems we're stealing from ourselves.
For such a historic school, our administration seems to have no interest in preserving anything that they're not profiting from. I was a business major and understand how businesses work, but The University of Alabama is not a business. First and foremost, it is an institution of higher learning; I feel like what I'm learning is that unique small businesses have no place in the area surrounding UA.
Hopefully Alabama will make sure another fun chain restaurant or leasing office opens up in Crimson Cafe's spot!
