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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

    New student-owned business delivers late night Munchies

    Dustin Alpert, a regional development junior, Daniel Sher, a psychology and religious studies sophomore, and Adam Weiner, a political science sophomore, stand at the counter in the kiosk of their newly formed company Munchies, located at the corner of Second Street and Mountain Avenue near the Hillel Center. The company delivers snacks, drinks, and other items students might not be able to find late at night after other businesses have closed.
    Dustin Alpert, a regional development junior, Daniel Sher, a psychology and religious studies sophomore, and Adam Weiner, a political science sophomore, stand at the counter in the kiosk of their newly formed company Munchies, located at the corner of Second Street and Mountain Avenue near the Hillel Center. The company delivers snacks, drinks, and other items students might not be able to find late at night after other businesses have closed.

    If it’s 2 a.m., and you just can’t fight that craving for sweet or salty snacks or any other midnight craving, then the new Munchies College Essentials delivery service is available to satisfy any after-hours need.

    Munchies celebrated their grand opening Monday night and is located at the corner of Mountain Avenue and Second Street.

    The new company provides college late-night necessities at very low-prices, said Munchies co-founder and regional development junior Dustin Alpert.

    Popular items on the ‘menu’ include: 5-Hour Energy, cookies and milk, ice cream sandwiches, breakfast burritos, Advil, gum, condoms, ping-pong balls, red cups and the ever popular Dunk-A-Roos.

    “”We have a fun and active campus,”” said Daniel Sher, co-founder and a physiology sophomore. “”We thought having a snacky-type menu seemed like something people would enjoy during the evening hours.””

    The Munchies founders hoped to provide an alternative to full meals late at night.

    “”No one would really call up a restaurant and just order a bag of chips,”” Alpert said.

    One of their goals is to keep things simple in the hope to stay away from too many name brand modern snack foods.

    “”Cereal and milk, ice cream sandwiches, Dunk-A-Roos, retro-style candy, et cetera,”” Sher said. “”Personally, I would never want to have Chips Ahoy or flaming-hot Cheetos delivered.””

    Alpert said the idea came to him when he began to think about searching for a job.

    “”While I’ve always had great entrepreneurship ideas, it was always a concern how would I go about it and who would I trust to go about it with,”” he said.

    The three co-founders, Alpert, Sher and pre-business sophomore Adam Weiner, are all part of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

    “”AEPi uses U.S. Foods for meal plans within the fraternity,”” Sher said. “”We were able to call U.S. Foods to see what kinds of prices we could get with certain foods we will sell.””

    They also got many of their supplies through wholesale retailers so they could find the best deal, he said.

    “”The kiosk we’re using had been vacant in front of Hillell, it was a coffee shop about five years ago,”” Alpert said. “”We immediately went downtown to do the zoning procedures, got our business license and really got things underway.””

    They founded the company by pulling money from their own savings accounts.

    “”After turning 21 over spring break, I won a bit of money in Vegas. I used that, in addition to money from our savings accounts,”” Alpert said. “”This is not a whole lot of money we’re investing, it’s such a great investment.””

    Sher said he enjoys the fact that Munchies does not need to compete with other businesses around campus, they can just have fun while they are a new addition to the business world.

    “”It’s not so hard to compete in the professional field, although we are students, it’s more fun and we’re just having a good time with it,”” Sher said.

    “”It’s a nice way to put a little energy toward something else, an outlet or break to get away from other everyday student stresses of school and the fraternity,”” Weiner, Alpha Epsilon Pi’s president said.

    Munchies is open Monday through Wednesday 10 p.m. to 1 a.m and Thursday through Saturday from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.

    “”We’re just three college guys looking to have a good time providing some of the quick-fix munchies and essential necessities to college students.””

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