Dormsnacks.com, a company founded and run by Brown students, has recently expanded to other schools throughout the country. The company sells non-perishable snacks and drinks and office supplies in bulk and delivers them to students once a week.
Several of the company's managers - Matt Bornstein '07, Andrew Bragdon '07 and Kevin Dickson '07 - said the expansion had been part of the business plan since the company's inception.
"When the model was conceived, we recognized (the need for this kind of service) was a universal problem, not just campus-specific," Dickson said.
The company has been actively pursuing relationships with other schools for about a year, and the transition to other locations began in late 2005, according to Bornstein. The company first expanded to the University of Miami and has since spread to a handful of other schools, including Stanford University, the University of Southern California, the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington.
Dickson said while Dormsnacks initiated contact with some of these schools, others became involved after students contacted the company's managers and asked for a branch at their school.
Most schools that now feature Dormsnacks are on the West Coast because the "economics of it just work out there," Bornstein said.
"West Coast schools have more favorable suppliers," Dickson said.
Bornstein described the relationships between the managers and students who run branches at other schools as joint-venture partnerships. "We provide model and platform and allow entrepreneurs at other schools to determine the rest," Dickson said.
In this joint process, managers process credit card transactions and retain a portion of the profit of each school's transactions, Bragdon said. Sometimes the managers play a larger role in the operation of a school's branch - at the University of Denver, for example, Dormsnacks managers split the cost of advertising on Facebook with the students there.
While other companies with similar business plans are primarily delivery services, Dormsnacks "provides a more differentiated service," Bornstein said. The company purchases goods in bulk and delivers them regularly to students who order them, as opposed to a same-day delivery service that purchases goods from a store.
Buying in bulk enables students to "save a great deal of money," Dickson said. The company sells items that are often overpriced in retail stores or difficult to transport, such as Gatorade, bottled water and Nantucket Nectars beverages, which are some of their most popular offerings, he added.
There has also been a recent increase in demand for produce, which the company now sells in a "limited way," Bornstein said.
Dickson declined to comment specifically on where the company purchases goods, but he did say the company has "relationships with a few warehouses."
Bragdon, Dickson and Bornstein will all graduate in May. Bragdon is considering graduate school, while Bornstein is considering consulting and Dickson investing. They all want to continue their involvement with the company after graduation and "want to be as involved as other obligations allow us to be," Bornstein said.
The managers are also looking for students to take over managerial positions after they graduate. These students could be enrolled at Brown and at other schools with Dormsnacks branches, Dickson said. "We want to work with people who are motivated, reliable and responsible," Bornstein said.
Bornstein said the business is "not about profit" and added that all the revenue earned has gone back into the company.
"Once (we're) able to harness fixed costs, (it's) only going to grow in profitability," Dickson said.
In e-mails to The Herald, most students contacted at Stanford, Miami and UCSD wrote that they had not heard of Dormsnacks, though a few mentioned seeing posters for it.
After looking at the Web site, however, many wrote that they think it is a great idea. Diana Peng, a Stanford sophomore, wrote, "It eliminates the need for (freshmen) to get rides to Safeway."
Brian Lemmerman, a sophomore at Miami, wrote, "It seems to have just about everything the typical college student would need." He also suggested that each site tailor its products to the individual school, such as offering drafting supplies at Miami, which has an architecture school.
