The 20 oz. bottle of Mountain Dew and the bacon double cheeseburger were the top-selling items in the Muskie Mart and Grill, respectively, during the month of November.
From Nov. 1 – 30, the bacon double cheeseburger was rung up 2,018 times and the 20 oz. bottle of Mountain Dew was purchased 286 times.
The Mirror asked Jean Fowler, manager of the Muskie Mart, to collect data that represented Muskie Mart patrons’ purchasing tendencies. Fowler reset the total sales numbers of the 25 items in the Muskie Mart which she believed were the most popular. She also reset the total sales numbers of the 19 items she thought were the most popular on the Muskie Grill. (Being one of the store’s regular cashiers, Fowler had a very good idea of what students order the most.) She kept track of the numbers throughout the month of November.
The second through fifth most purchased items in the Muskie Mart were Pepperoni Pizza Lunchables (203), Smuckers Grape Peanut Butter and Jelly Uncrustables (197), M & M Cookie (176), and Smuckers Strawberry Peanut Butter and Jelly Uncrustables (120).
The second through fifth most purchased items in the Muskie Grill were regular French fries (1,755), mild chicken strips (727), mild chicken wings (647), and custom subs (487).
Only two of the top five grill items had nutritional information available at the time of print. The bacon double cheeseburger contains 1,265 calories and an order of regular French fries has 449 calories.
A 20 oz. Mountain Dew, Pepperoni Pizza Lunchables, Smuckers Grape Peanut Butter and Jelly Uncrustables, M & M Cookie, and Smuckers Strawberry Peanut Butter and Jelly Uncrustables have 290, 310, 330, 420, and 330 calories, respectively.
Rachele Hansen, senior education, English, and writing major, most often chooses the Muskie Mart because of its convenient location.
Chisato Yamaoka, junior biology major, is a Lakeland student who chose her BLT club sandwich because of its taste appeal. Yamaoka enjoys the good taste of the Grill’s food, but still expressed an interest in learning the nutritional information for it.
Some students value knowing the nutritional information of the foods they consume. The number one selling item in the grill by itself accounted for 2,552,770 calories in the month of November. In other words, the Muskie Mart was delivering an average of approximately 85,092 calories in the form of a bacon double cheeseburger every day.
Is there an upside to this? Well, if you’re trying to gain some weight for a sport, the 66.7 grams of protein packed in the bacon double cheeseburger is a plus, but there are definitely healthier – yet more expensive – ways to get that same amount of protein. For instance, picking up two grilled chicken sandwiches will yield only 8.9 fewer grams of total protein compared to one bacon double cheeseburger, yet will have less than half the calories. Additionally, the two sandwiches will have 60 fewer grams of fat and 26 fewer carbohydrates.
Yet, it’s likely this high-caloric trend will stay the same, as Fowler pointed out, “I think it’s because they [students] don’t get it at home. Or it’s not something they’re going to make for themselves,” she said. “I mean, how many times do you go home and your mom goes, ‘Hey, you wanna have a bacon double cheeseburger?’”
Keeping the nutritional information for grill items is one challenge Fowler does not have the resources to undertake at this time.
“We don’t have a dietician on board. All the other colleges I worked at actually had a dietician on board and I was able to keep it [nutrition information] current. It might be something that one of the hospitality classes wanted to tackle as a class project – that would be great,” she said.
Fowler said that people come up and say things like, “Oh, I know it’s 500 calories, but I’ve had a hard day and I deserve it.”
If that’s the case, the Muskie Mart may be flooded with students during finals week.