Students who find themselves thirsty will notice their pockets a little emptier after purchasing a 20-ounce beverage on campus.

The price of 20-ounce Coke beverages has increased from $1 to $1.25 throughout campus, said Jon Lewis, ISU Dining director.

“Pricing needs to keep pace with our expenses,” Lewis said.

Iowa State has a contract to offer only Coke products in vending machines throughout campus, excluding the Memorial Union vending machines, Lewis said. This contract is up for renewal at the end of this year, which means the university will examine bids from multiple producers and decide who will be able to offer their beverages to the university.

Lewis said this process may or may not affect the price of beverages on campus. He said prices in vending machines are more closely related to entire market averages, rather than a single provider.

“Our prices will always be competitive,” he said. “Our job is to try to keep prices down and competitive.”

Lewis said several considerations went into the decision to increase the vending prices.

The bottom line was the need of expenditure costs of vending services to be covered, Lewis said. “We are looking for places we can cover those expenses.”

Lewis said the price of beverages on campus was lower than the price at local stores.

“The reality is currently we were under-priced compared to the market,” he said.

When considering how much to raise the price of a vending machine item, more than expenditure costs have to be considered, Lewis said. He said the issue of how to offer coin change efficiently was also taken into account.

It was easier to increase the price of 20-ounce beverages to $1.25 rather than to $1.15, because change is easier to offer in quarters than nickels and dimes.

Lewis said this was the reason the price of 20-ounce beverages increased a relatively large amount. However, he said this also meant the price will remain stationary for a longer period of time.

The current increase was the first since 1998, Lewis said.

Arne Hallam, professor and chairman of the department of economics, said an explicit contract with a specific producer is one option to deal with university vending, but another option is to let any producer bid on individual vending slots on campus.

“There are pluses and minuses to both,” he said.

If a university were to let a mix of vendors set up machines on campus, the competition between those producers with other vendors would keep costs down, Hallam said. However, the university would not receive extra money back from the vendors.

“Then you let them have all the profits,” he said.

If the university chooses to contract with a single producer, they eliminate the competition between vendors in the consumer’s eye, but producers do have to compete on a higher level by offering money back to the university to gain sole entry to campus vending, Hallam said.

“What tends to happen is the vendors want sole rights,” he said.

With sole rights to vending, unless specified in a contract, the vendor may raise prices without encountering competition, Hallam said.

Hallam said most universities choose to enter into contracts with one vendor.

The MU is not covered under Iowa State’s current contract with Coke, so they are allowed to offer Pepsi, American Bottling and Coke products, said Bill Young, assistant director of food services. Prices for 20-ounce beverages in the MU have been recently set at $1.25, he said.

Previously in the MU, Pepsi products were $1.30, and Coke and American Bottling products were $1.15.

Lewis said 25 percent of money taken in by vending machines has been returned to the university. He said for each 20-ounce beverage a student purchases at $1.25, 31.25 cents are returned to the university.

This money is used to fund the expenses of vending services and also to aid the colleges of the buildings where the machines are located.

Maura Sharp, senior in German, said after she noticed the price increase, she began bringing beverages from home to avoid the extra expenses.

“Otherwise, I would buy one every day, sometimes twice,” she said.

Stacie Johnson, sophomore in pre-business, said she was also unhappy with the recent price increase.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” she said. “I guess since they increased [costs] at the gas stations and such, they have to increase it everywhere.”