Although it was before my time, I still hear stories about the end of Panda Express: the iconic, bright, red-and-black logo replaced by the lifeless, corporate-slop-bowl, millennial-green of It’s Thyme. An affordable, hearty, protein-packed bowl starting at $8.90, replaced by a bowl that never seems to equal the sum of its parts, starting at $11.89.
But as prices increased, the awards began flooding in. Last year, It’s Thyme received the FareCheck Gold Standard Award for safe, allergen-free dining — a day commemorated by Duke’s crack at a high-profile ceremony, including a ribbon-cutting, DJ booth and free merch. To be fair, there may have been a need for an allergy-free location on West Campus. And other opinion writers have lauded the location for ‘bringing back’ the natural state of human eating, reminding them of our ancestral days of “hunting, gathering or cultivating” (like the famously hunted, gathered and cultivated Pineapple Dole Whip). However, it’s unfortunate that opening It’s Thyme came at the cost of one of the only affordable locations left on campus.
Yet this phenomenon is a pattern within Duke Dining. That is, introduce new, ‘healthier’ options at the expense of affordable, accessible options, hike prices and rake in the positive news coverage. In September, DukeDining committed to the TrueBlue initiative — agreeing to eliminate artificial sweeteners and food dyes across campus by 2026 and even suggesting that they would work to replace seed oils…