Welcome to Rye Country Day's Economic Blog. Here you will find perspectives by students taking Economics at Rye Country Day School. It is meant to be a forum where students can openly express their ideas and take positions on relevant economic issues. I urge everyone to participate in presenting their own ideas in an open manner so that we can all learn from each other. Regardless of whether you are currently taking Economics, everyone is invited and encouraged to comment on articles and get involved. Feel free to e-mail me, Alex Osborne at alexander_osborne@rcds.rye.ny.us , with comments or suggestions.

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Featured Entry - Monopoly on Athletic Center Apparel


You know what grinds my gears? Walking into the athletic center's gym in blue gym shorts and a white T-shirt, and within 5 minutes of my arrival on the bench press, Mr. McGhee comes up to me and kicks me out after chastising me for not wearing the correct attire. Apparently, the proper gym attire consists of blue and grey RCDS clothing AND if signed up for fitness center you can receive a detention if you don’t have the right stuff to wear. Now at first this might seem pretty acceptable. But, is it acceptable for an institution to force its subjects to wear products that can only be bought through them? Doesn't this sound like an extreme monopoly where not only is there one supplier of the good we need but that supplier is forcing us to buy that good or go to detention. Rye Country Day School has an illegal monopoly on acceptable athletic apparel. Every overpriced $20 shirt we buy, they collect a handsome profit. While the whole time we could be walking into Costco and getting 10 shirts for the same price
-Louis DeSantis

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd like to hear the athletic department's take on this issue; I want to know why we're required to wear RCDS-issued fitness clothes. Having watched countless dress-code arguments occur at the school for a while, I can't help but suspect it's an "insurance issue." I have no idea how one can injure himself by wearing a plain white shirt as opposed to clothing with "RCDS" written on it, but with insurance there are some ridiculous laws and regulations, and I wouldn't be surprised if the "Fitness center dress code" which requires us to wear RCDS clothing is incorporated into some contract under which the school is binded.

I don't think this is an "illegal" monopoly because it is your own choice to attend RCDS, and if you come here and use the fitness center, you do so under certain conditions which a private institution should be free to enforce.
-Kunal

Anonymous said...

I would quote from Office Space, but somebody would probably hurt me. So, I'll restrain myself. At the same time, this is a mind boggling issue, and if you think too hard about it, you might just start bleeding from random parts of your body. I agree with Kunal in that, as a student, you're buying into the system. However, as an individual, it seems sort of rediculous to have "RCDS" plastered all over your body in the place least likely for anybody to be judging you. They most definitely have a monopoly over the service of providing students with clothing. RCDS clothing is not included in the tuition. Yet if I were to write RCDS on a white shirt, it would be considered unacceptable. They're imposing a dresscode, which we have to follow, and furthermore can only do so by paying them extra. It's like the included gratuity on a restaurant bill. You find out once the bill comes however, they're always careful to mention it somewhere on the menu. RCDS takes the same approach with its handbook, only I'm almost positive they neglect to tell you the cost of this requirement.