Infographic by Charlotte Braden

California Lutheran University students are now being charged for sauce at The Habit Burger & Grill, following a corporate-wide policy change over the summer.

“Our location on campus is a franchise and it was a corporate-wide change,” said Ariana Latifi, operations manager of Sodexo. “They decided to wait until school started to actually make the change to charge for sauces so it doesn’t confuse all the customers that have been coming in so far.”

Since opening on campus in 2019, all sauces at The Habit were previously free by request. Certain sauces will now cost 60 cents while others remain free.

“They have ketchup, mustard, mayo that are available at both the dispenser pumps and the packets. So those are free, but anything else, so the ranch, the boom sauce, teriyaki, technically any of their salad dressings, cost money,” Latifi said. 

The Habit accepts student meal plan payment options—Flex Dollars and Munch Money—as well as general forms of payment to cover the 60-cent fee, an employee told The Echo.

Owan Fralick, a first-year, said she was frustrated when she discovered the rumors about the sauce price change being true. 

“I didn’t believe it, I thought they were joking. I didn’t expect when I walked up to the counter for them to actually make me pay for it,” Fralick said. “The first time I went, I had to eat my nuggets with no sauce. I was pissed. I didn’t enjoy my meal as much, so I wasn’t as fueled for the rest of my day, all because of my sauce. It makes the meal, really.” 

Fralick said that university chain dining locations should enforce different rules than corporate locations. 

“I think they should eliminate the cost of sauce on university campuses, at least,” Fralick said. “A sauce? You can’t give us a sauce? That’s crazy.”

Latifi said that when the sauce policy was put into effect, there was a bit of a learning curve for both customers and staff, as the upcharge was not clarified on Grubhub.

“Students would come in, pick up their order and ask for sauce, and then we’d have to say, ‘Oh so sorry, we’re now charging for sauces, so we can ring you up at the register,’” Latifi said.  

Despite some student complaints, Latifi said the change hasn’t really affected The Habit’s sales.

“For the most part, we haven’t had a lot of upset about it. I mean, I don’t think it’s really affecting our sales, to be honest, because 60 cents is truly not a big deal,” Latifi said. 

Sofia Stahoski, a junior who has had a meal plan for the past two years, said charging for sauce, on top of paying for a meal plan, is unfair for students.

According to the Cal Lutheran website, the cheapest meal plan offered for students living on campus costs $3,820 per semester. With the plan comes $50 Flex Dollars to be spent at Ullman To Go Market, Starbucks or The Habit as well as 190 total meals to be used at Ullman Dining. 

“I understand they need to make money, but why are you charging for sauces when we are already paying so much for our meal swipes,” Stahoski said. 

Latifi said The Habit still loses money on block meals—menu items that contain an entree, fries and a drink for the price of a meal swipe. Many students have opted not to add ranch to their meal that otherwise would have following the change, in turn causing a dip in ranch production, Latifi said.

“It happens a lot where someone comes up and orders a burger and fries and says, ‘Can I get a side of ranch?’ and they see the charge and go ‘Oh, nevermind,’” Latifi said.

This article was updated at 8:55 p.m. on October 1 to correct that The Habit accepts Flex Dollars and Munch Money, in addition to general forms of payment, for sauce.