Fear not the arduous 15-minute speed walk to Evanston for an exam-night bite at 8 p.m. any longer. Thanks to Northwestern’s newly-launched Wildcat Express Delivery (WED), dinner can now arrive reliably at your doorstep.
Drawing 274 fans on Facebook, this Northwestern Student Holdings project delivers food from six Evanston restaurants (Burger King, Chipotle, J. K. Sweets, Cosi, Panera and Zoba Noodle Bar) to ravenous pajama-bottomed students in dorms and buildings on campus. WED will also cater from any Evanston restaurant to Greek houses, dorm munchies or student group events as long as the order is more than $150.
“It’s a service the campus has really wanted, and it will not only help students, but help the community in which the service is taking place,” said SESP junior Louise Huterstein, CEO of NSH and former president of WED.
One hundred fifty orders and a technical glitch after launching on April 27, WED scored an average of 14 orders per night in the past week. Employing four phone operators and three drivers (one of each is on duty per night), WED operators have encountered their share of order bombardments. “My first baptism by fire was one Saturday night where it was absolutely crazy. It was 15 orders but it felt like 30. It’s all luck of the draw, if you get seven orders at once, you’re going to be stressed, you’re going to be hurried,” says Medill junior Nathan Garden, a WED driver.
But saving a walk downtown comes with a fee. A 20 percent service charge (before tax) is included in any $10-20 order according to Weinberg junior Joe Lischwe, WED president and NSH Chief Operating Officer. But aiming to first introduce the service and gauge demand, WED has not yet made a profit this quarter.
“We are in the process of changing our pricing and remaking contracts with restaurants, both of which will hopefully make the business profitable sooner and also make it cheaper for students. We came in this quarter expecting a loss,” Lischwe says.
The participating restaurants have the sweeter end of the deal — at least for now. In exchange for a hoped-for increase in the restaurants’ business flow and help in marketing to students, WED is considering requiring restaurants to pay a service fee to lighten the costs on students and help WED make a profit (which will be routed to NSH for investment in other entrepreneurial projects).
“That was the most difficult thing to get established here, was having the restaurants believe, ‘Okay here’s a bunch of students, can we really trust our business, our names with a bunch of students,’” Lischwe says. “And so what we decided to do was give them a trial quarter: they basically have our services for free and see what works for them.”
WED is looking to expand service to off-campus student residences, hire new operators and churn out a new financial model.
“The way in which we structure the management team will ensure longevity of leadership,” Huterstein says. “We have faith that it will not only continue but continue to grow and prosper.”