Michelle Deng
Since April 2025, the sight greeting students who walk into Price Center’s Sunshine Market is no longer its signature wooden archway and hanging sign; instead, shoppers now face barren, newly-painted yellow walls. One year after Housing Dining Hospitality first announced the market renovation, the results are finally on display, complete with Just Walk Out gates guarding the entrance.
Sunshine Market is the latest of four markets that the school has transitioned to Amazon Just Walk Out locations over the past two years. While the stated purpose for these renovations is improved convenience for students, many have raised concerns about their functionality or necessity and erasure of the markets’ original charm. Since Sunshine’s re-opening this quarter, the latter has been the biggest subject of student dissatisfaction.
In a TikTok posted by the UC San Diego Bookstore in June 2024, students said their final goodbyes to the old Sunshine Market by honoring their Sunshine-specific go-to drinks and snacks. Market staff and regulars raved about products like Pocari Sweat, RYSE and Gym Weed energy drinks, f’real milkshakes, turkey sandwiches, and tofu wraps — none of which are available at the newly renovated market.
According to Melinda Battenberg, associate director of internal communications for UCSD, last year’s Sunshine Market student feedback survey was “instrumental” in determining what products the HDH version of the market would offer. In accordance with the survey’s results, the new market has expanded its selection of fresh produce and baking ingredients. However, like all HDH markets, Sunshine’s sourcing is also now limited to “vendors from an approved vendor list.” This has led the market to stray from its convenience store roots, as shoppers can no longer find many of its grab-and-go, international, and specialty items.
Additionally, shoppers can no longer expect to see the same friendly faces behind the counter as last year; the market is now staffed exclusively by new hires and reassigned HDH workers. While all Sunshine Market employees were offered positions at the newly renovated market, none accepted. According to Battenberg, this turnover was due to “graduation and other career opportunities.”
Reddit users on the subreddit r/UCSD have bemoaned these changes to the market in the weeks following its reopening, describing a sterile atmosphere that has dissuaded them from shopping.
“Sunshine Market was, as literal as I can be, by students for students,” wrote user Gato322. “Like, students ran the store, ordered the products from suppliers, decided on new things to buy, chose vendors. This new market isn’t that anymore. It’s an HDH market with a corporate coat of paint.”
In response to these student criticisms, Battenberg said that HDH is “currently working on adding vendors to [its] system, including vendors previously used at Sunshine Market. … Some of the products [it is] planning to add soon include: Mexican candy, popsicles and paletas, [and] local produce from Dassi Farms.”
Battenberg shared that HDH plans to assess student feedback on all market locations, including Sunshine Market, by hosting a retail focus group later this quarter. Students can expect communication about this retail focus group via the Triton2Go app in the coming weeks.
UCSD is still working to improve the HDH version of Sunshine Market. However, without its classic neon signs, homey entrance, television screens, lively Instagram account, and fan-favorite products, one year later, Sunshine Market is undoubtedly not the same — for better or for worse.