Magazine Feature / People

Student entrepreneurs launch grocery delivery service for dorm residents

The way five DU sophomores see it, students can’t quench the thirst for knowledge without first easing the hunger for snacks.

So the young entrepreneurs launched a new grocery and snack delivery service that they hope will fatten their wallets by filling refrigerators.

It’s a franchise called DormSnacks.com at the University of Denver and is a way for DU students to make weekly bulk food purchases without having to leave their dorms. Simply place an order at www.DormSnacks.com and they will fill it, bill it and deliver it free. 

“All you have to do is walk downstairs and pick up your groceries,” says Doug Perry, 19, a business major from Glen Ellyn, Ill.

DormSnacks.com offers everything from potato chips, English muffins and Cheerios to Oreo cookies, Perrier water and plug-in room deodorizers.

“The potential is really out there,” says Mac Harris, 19, a finance and marketing major from Boulder. “I’m hoping we go over $1,000 each week.”

The business began Oct. 28 and had only garnered a handful orders by mid-November, mostly for granola bars, mixed snacks and bottled water. 

Part of the hesitation, the group acknowledges, is that customers can only order in bulk, which means buying not less than a 4.1-pound box of Goldfish crackers, 36 double rolls of Charmin toilet paper, or enough Kool-Aid tropical punch mix to make 34 quarts.

Availability also can be a shortcoming: Crest whitening strips are offered, for example, but not toothpaste; English muffins, but not bread or bagels; mustard and ketchup but not salsa or cheese dip. And it’s unclear how many customers want to pay in bulk, laying out $23.95 for a 48-pack of M&Ms, for example, $10.02 for 16 bars of hand soap; or $15.28 for 54.7 yards of dental floss.

“All our prices are immensely cheaper than you could get at Safeway,” insists Richie Kendall, 19, a marketing and electronic media major from Louisville, Colo.

And you can’t beat the convenience, says the group, which also includes Chet Anderson, 20, a marketing major from Boulder, and Noah Winter, 19, a marketing major from Glencoe, Ill.

So far, the service is only offered in Johnson-McFarlane and Nelson halls, but in “phase 2” to be launched in the winter term the entrepreneurs hope to include fraternities and sororities and University apartments.

“If they have kitchens,” Perry says, “we want their business.”

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