:,
Who makes all those salads and cookies? By TEDD PROKOP IS corresponde nt USU vending brought in $750,000 last year - due to nearly 19,500 cookies sold - and will probably exceed that total this year. According to Gary Millburn, manager of USU Vending, students don't have to worry about freshness in the vending machines. USU Vending has its own kitchen on campus, he said, where they make the sandwiches, salads and puddings fresh every day, Millburn said the sandwiches are color-coded every day to keep track of their freshness. "Every morning we take inventory on all of our vending material," said Millburn. "It assures freshness leaving the sandwiches in only two days." If you're a big cookie eater, the Junction is responsible for baking those fresh daily, also, Millburn said. This month, he noted, there was a 5-cent candy increase due to an increase from the distributor. Millburn said he tries to keep all of his prices competitive with the major grocery stores in Logan. " When dealing with a vending machine," Millburn said, "it is impossible to raise the price of candy by 1 cent like stores can." He explained that he kept the price down for a year and a half before increasing the price. "People also forget that we have to pay for our vending machines with the profit off the others," Millburn said. For example, he said, Vending bought a refrigerated machine for the library that cost $6,000. Every quarter, he said, vending tries to buy new machines for different areas of need. 'We go through about 150 cases of soda pop and 130 dozens cookies every day," he said. "We do have tremendous turnover," Millburn said. "And for such a small operation we run it very smoothly, We have about 30 people employed and we do our own machine repairs also." Millburn said this year is promising, but vending during the summer is a slow business.
Carrie Anderson pr epa res the batte r for the 130 do zen coo kies that ar e devoured o n ca mpu s every da y. Tim Ra~mu~C'n photo