Student Concessions Decline in Houses

House candy and cigarette concessions have not opened this year, because "they simply don't make enough money," Dustin M. Burke '52, Director of Student Employment, explained yesterday.

Burke said that the Office of Student Employment is still trying to revive the Eliot House concession, which has consistently "approached" a profit in recent years. The reason for the relative durability of Eliot stands in the past has been the House's distance from the Square and its "particular clientele," he suggested.

Other House concessions are established periodically, but their volume of business is apparently too small to maintain financial equilibrium. A concession operator must do about $5,000 worth of business to make a 15 or 20 per cent profit worth the time he spends at the counter, Burke estimated. Most House stands have been unable to reach this minimum amount of trade.

Students running the candy and cigarette counters in Harkness Commons and the Union have a tremendous advantage over House entrepreneurs, Burke pointed out, because of the volume of cigarette sales. In Harkness, for example, cigarette sales alone almost pay for the stand.