The C-Store located in Frances Warde Hall is a convenient place for Mercyhurst College students to purchase snacks, coffee, frozen foods and items such as shampoo and toothpaste.

Despite its convenience, the C-Store does not always offer its items at the lowest prices.

Prices of items offered at the C-Store were compared to prices of identical items sold at CVS.

The results showed that many items were more expensive at the C-Store. Even so, some items cost the same at both stores or were cheaper at the C-Store than the items at CVS.

According to Director of Food Services Kim Novak, the differences in prices between CVS and the C-Store are due to CVS having a larger buying power and the fact that they sell more items.

Tyler Stauffer photo: The C-Store located in Warde Hall is open from 4 to 11 p.m. every day.

The C-Store only sells about 12 boxes of Kleenex a month, but CVS sells thousands, Novak said.

This in part explains why a Kleenex box with 200 tissues costs $3.89 at the C-Store as opposed to $2.39 at CVS.

The C-Store does not have the “volume that CVS does,” Novak said. Therefore, CVS is able to charge less for their items.

According to Novak, the prices in the C-Store are based on the cost of the item, the cost of labor to put the item on the shelf and the costs of lighting the store.

Novak explained that the purpose of the C-Store is to offer items that suit the students’ needs.

“The store is there for convenience for students,” Novak said.
She said that not all students walk by the C-Store on a daily basis, but she hopes that during the winter the C-Store will be a convenient place that students frequent when they run out of an item they need or want to grab a snack.

Novak encouraged students to share suggestions with Parkhurst about items they would like the C-Store to offer.

C-Store and CVS prices