With a new year comes a new delivery service to the Athens community. Campus Canteen, an online general store, opened early this year with numerous items available for delivery.

The idea for Campus Canteen came about when co-founder and CEO Jordan Enoch moved from his hometown of Atlanta to New York City for college.

“While I was in college, the delivery options were incredible,” Enoch said in an interview with The Red & Black. “It got me thinking of how the South and everywhere else is lacking delivery for things other than filling food.”

With more than 800 products, Campus Canteen has a wide variety of options to choose. From snacks and microwavable meals to office supplies and household items, Enoch and co-owner Jeff Wachter made “delivering the goods” the online store’s motto.

“Campus Canteen is all about speed and convenience and delivery and variety,” Enoch said. “We had a good response the first week, with around 150 accounts being opened on the Web site.”

Ordering from Campus Canteen is simple and quick for residents within a five-mile radius of the store’s location on Oak Street, including the University’s campus. In addition, orders of $10 or more include free delivery and customers receive $5 in Canteen Rewards for every 10 orders.

Some customers say using the online general store instead of driving to a gas station has advantages.

“It’s been really convenient when all you want is chips and a soda,” said Michael Fisher, a junior from Marietta. “And having them deliver is good with bad weather and safer when everyone has been drinking.”

Campus Canteen has been great for late study nights “because when me and my friends are all focused on studying, no one wants to break away for a quick run to the store,” said Lindsey Bettis, a sophomore from Social Circle. “Ordering ice cream has been our favorite.”

“Our main goal is to be unique,” Enoch said. “We view Campus Canteen as being the perfect option for late nights, getting home from class and throwing a party.”

Campus Canteen also offers pre-bundled packages that include the All Nighter for study nights (5 Hour Energy, No Doz, Uncrustable PB&J, chips and Gatorade) and the Party Pack (Solo Cups, ping pong balls, margarita mix and bag of ice). Packages for club meetings and sick days are also available online.

“This is our first Campus Canteen,” Enoch said. “We chose to put the first store in Athens because it’s a great, fun college town that was lacking a late night type of delivery service.”

“We hope to see a lot of success from our Athens location. We hope that from customer feedback we can improve Campus Canteen and maybe expand our business to other college towns. Even though Campus Canteen is college-town focused, our services are open to everyone within the five mile radius.”

Originally published in the Red & Black on Monday, February 09, 2009