The Junction

Former Junction location. Now demolished. The rest of the old DC lay unused behind that new teal-colored wall.

The Junction is a convenience store run by Sodexho similar to Trudy's and Crossroads. It used to be located in the old Segundo DC (with a one(?) year exception when it was temporarily housed in a trailer outside). Inside you will find find drinks, snacks, candy, and other convenience store items.

You can pay for items via cash, meal swipes (e.g. one "swipe" for three candy bars), or credit/debit cards. It is not advised to use swipes to pay for purchases because each swipe costs between $5 to $7. (see Aggie article). Another unusual thing the junction does is charge sales tax on all commercially packaged food items if you pay via cash/credit/debit. Tax is not charged if you use munch money or swipes via your reg card.

Despite these major complaints, most freshman tend to use most of their remaining meal swipes at the end of a quarter on a soda, energy drink, and junk food binge.

From Monday thru Thursday, the standard time for stopping accepting cash is 15 minutes before closing, with slight variations depending on the employee. However, on Friday-Sunday, there is still quite a lot of variation, with more research required.

Swipes
On a per item basis the first swipe is generally worth three dollars and any subsequent swipes are worth two dollars. Regular candy is $0.89 so you can get three for one swipe, king size candy is $1.39 or two for one swipe. Any items priced $1.50-$2.49 are one swipe the next item price range from $2.59 to $4.99 costs two swipes. An exception to this are $0.99 items which are two for one swipe.

The original Junction was just across the hall from the front door of the current Junction. It used to be a really nice place with a large area that featured a pool table and a piano. It was a nice hangout place with televisions and chairs. The actual convenience store part was a very small room that could barely fit a small group of people.

Comments:

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This place is bullshit. Not only is paying for swipes a rip-off to begin with, but the University then gives the space to SoDexHo to rip off students on a larger scale. Why doesn't the university give the building to the students? —ArlenAbraham

No problem here, if you don't happen to like it, no need to be a patron. Obviously not enough people care or the policy would have been changed by now. I find this place to be highly useful, and yes, rather expensive. —TR

Does anyone know when they stop accepting cash? Because I've always figured its around 30 minutes before closing time, but it sometimes varies, and then when I didn't have munch money it was a pita. —Max Mikalonis

2006-06-09 21:23:12   A swipe costs about $2.50 when you're living ON campus. It costs about $7 if you get a meal plan while you live OFF campus. —WaylandLee

• Not from my experience. A swipe covers the cost of eating in the DC, which is around 7-8 dollars, I believe. When you leave the dorms, all remaining swipes are converted to Aggie Cash at $2.50 per swipe, so in the end you're losing about 5 dollars. Regardless, it costs about two swipes to buy 1 beverage at the Junction —TR
  

2007-01-17 21:23:53   Calculated by the difference between meal plans for the 2006-2007 on-campus plans, a single swipe is worth about $2.30. Oddly enough, this appears to be constant despite buying a larger/smaller meal plan. —WilliamWilson

2007-01-21 01:30:31   Edit: The first 90 swipes cost ~$8.60 a piece, the second 90 cost ~$2.30 a peice —WilliamWilson

2007-03-11 21:29:54   I bought 4 rolls of film at the segundo junction today. It ruled. —EmilyKleber

2007-05-28 09:36:59   Is taxing comercially packaged food items legal. The fact that they charge sales tax for cash and not reg card is odd. Any legal experts want to weigh in on this? i know no convenience or grocery store in town charges sales tax on a bag of chips, cereal or nuts. Sales tax is only supposed to be charged for food designed to be eaten on the premise ie. prepared sushi/salads/sandwiches (except for a few exceptions like bottled items). —MattHh

• I'm not a legal expert but this is my understanding of the laws I've read: Food that is designed to be consumed immediately (upon purchase) is taxable. A candy bar purchased from a grocery store is not considered to be a grocery (tax-exempt), whereas a candy bar purchased from a concessionaire (which is what the c-stores are treated as, I believe) is considered to be for immediate consumption (taxable). As far as tax-free reg card purchases goes, Sodexho pays the sales tax on any purchases made with reg cards. They claim this as one of the benefits of Aggie Cash. —JeremyOgul
  

2008-01-11 08:06:31   It's not a ripoff if you do the meal... One entree, a drink, cookies, chips for one swipe.... Which is already more than I'd eat at the dining hall anyway. —JenniferGiang

2008-04-20 19:01:26   the swipe system is weird. a full lunch is one swipe, but then again so is a bottle of water. whatever...its nice to have when you have a random chocolate craving late at night. —ASQWIK

2008-10-26 22:30:34   The cash prices for the Junction are probably 2-3 times (or more) what they are in any of the grocery stores around Davis. This is one of the very most expensive ways to get food in Davis, and is not a particularly good value. Ok, it's an absolutely terrible value... There is also a lack of healthy food here. —IDoNotExist

2012-05-11 20:11:39   Most real food items are a terrible ripoff, and all swipe-based prices are even worse, but the Junction is worth checking out for the fact that they have decently affordable, and good, on-campus ice cream sandwiches. Made with actual ice cream and cookies! Shockingly terrific, especially for someone like me who basically avoided the Junction on principle as a freshman. —ThomasReeder