Towers Marketplace, a retail dining location at the top of Ithaca College’s campus, has partnered with Grubhub to expand access to the dining destination.
The service will allow students to order meals through their phones and pick up their food at the marketplace, said Hicham Oulida, retail manager at Towers Marketplace. Students will receive a push notification alerting them that their food is ready to be collected, he said.
Towers Marketplace often has long lines, sophomore Erin Terada said, and allowing students to order ahead may allow the lines to move quicker.
The college will perform a stress test of the service from 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 30 to check for any bugs before launching the service, said Rachel O’Campo, coordinator for dining services.
Currently, Towers Marketplace offers snacks and drinks, along with selections from Towers of Pizza, South Hill Smash Grill, Ithaca Coffee Company and Purity Ice Cream. Students at the college are able to use their money, Bomber Bucks or ID Express to purchase food.
The college plans to implement delivery in the future, Oulida said. When Grubhub’s delivery service from Towers Marketplace is launched, it will allow students to order their food from the comfort of their dorms and have it delivered to their buildings for a fee.
Terada said the delivery service will not be useful to many underclassmen. She also noted that the delivery service may create more work for employees.
“With the delivery service, I wonder if that would add more pressure and demand for the workers,” Terada said.
Senior Elias Koch, who lives off campus, said he would find the delivery service useful because cooking at home can be time-consuming. He said he would not make use of the service unless it delivered, as he often cooks more food than he knows what to do with.
“I like cooking for myself, but, at the same time, I don’t want to make too much food because I hate leftovers,” Koch said. “Unless I’m cooking a meal where I’m sharing it with my roommates, I’d prefer to get something small, which is kind of hard to make for the foods I like to make.”
Corrections: A previous version of this article stated that the stress test took place on Jan. 28. The stress test will actually take place Jan. 30.
