Last week, I entered a familiar place for the first time this semester: Sears Grab-It. I was checking out the product selection, noticing some new items, and that some had been removed. This was all to be expected. However, with every second that I lingered in that small room, a dreadful feeling was beginning to envelop me. And that’s when I saw it: the old points system was gone, replacing it was an entirely new system to determine how much food you could get. Grab-It has changed… Nay! It has been murdered!
For context, Grab-It previously had a points system. Each meal swipe was 12 points, and you could choose to spend them on entrees (6 points each) or snacks. (2 points each) This system was needlessly convoluted, but it did give students the freedom to get two entrees or six snacks. Most important of all though, the points system was exploitable. Complex systems beget great riches for those who choose to master them, and I was not about to miss out.
Here’s how the math worked: First, assume the unlimited meal plan, allowing you to go all out on snacks and still have swipes left in the day for meals at other dining locations. At Grab-It, there were 12 points per swipe, but you could use a maximum of 2 Grab-It/Bag-It swipes per day. 2 swipes gives you 24 points, equating to 4 entrees or an astonishing 12 snacks. Now let’s extend this to a week. For each week you can use a maximum of 5 Grab-It/Bag-It swipes, equating to 60 points; 10 entrees or 30 snacks. With my trusty bicycle, I was able to easily carry my spoils back to Cutler House with ease. Grab-It turned from a source of quick food in between classes into a free grocery store. My friends and I named this strategy, “Grab-It Maxxing.” And, in case you were wondering, yes, there were some weeks where I did grab 30 snacks.
We must have flown too close to the sun, because the old Grab-It Maxxing strategy has been made completely obsolete through two crucial changes. Double swipes have been severely nerfed; a Grab-It employee informed me that you now must wait at least 10 minutes between swipes. As previously mentioned, the points system is gone. Now, there is an equally complicated, but much more strict set of rules, and a distinction between premium and non-premium entrees. The standard Grab-It limit is now one non-premium entree and two sides. As a result of these policy changes, Grab-It Maxxing is now dead. While there is still a significant amount of food one can theoretically procure per day from the mini-mart, the 10 minute swipe timeout makes this difficult to the point of being useless.
If it really was my exploits that led to this severe Grab-It nerf, I do apologize. But worry not, young freshmen, there are still some lucrative opportunities available. The severely underutilized USEFULL containers seem like the next place to look for getting the most out of your meal swipe…