The Shopping Stop, Washington University’s newest student-run business, nestled between Wash U Wash and the Bear-y Sweet Shoppe, opened with the start of the academic year at the Gregg storefronts.

Skyler Kessler | Student Life

Cole West, president and founder of The Shopping Stop, sits in his business’s storefront. The Shopping Stop is the newest student business on the South 40, and it provides grocery delivery services to the Wash. U. campus.

Aimed at students too pressed for time to do their own shopping or those without transportation, the Shopping Stop features the University’s first online-ordering, store-to-campus grocery delivery service. Students pay a fee to subscribe to the service, and can then request that the business purchase goods from Target or Whole Foods, which students can pick up on the South 40.

Sophomore Cole West, president of the company, conceived the idea last semester. Around midterms, he recognized the need for a service that would deliver goods to students.

Sophomores Leonardo Zingg and Muhammad Elahi started the business with West, in response to their experiences as freshmen.

“There were plenty of times when there were things I wanted or needed off campus but just didn’t have the time to go get them or didn’t want to spend the money to take a cab,” West explained.

Shopping Stop chairman Elahi stated that one of the main goals of the Shopping Stop is simply to make life easier for students.

The business is not limited to groceries, but will also provide students with almost any item available at the two stores it visits. Orders are brought back to the Shopping Stop’s storefront for pickup by the customers.

“Anything they have, we can get you,” West said.

The new business also found a way to give back to the community: When food isn’t picked up from the store within a certain period of time, leftovers are donated to Operation Food Search, a St. Louis food bank that feeds the underprivileged.

The company is looking to expand in a variety of ways. One of its ideas for potential innovation would be the inclusion of group packages: a system where a group of friends who sign up together would receive some level of discount for the delivery service.

“There are a lot of things we can do with this business, and we’re just at the tip of the iceberg as far as what we can do,” West assured.

Washington University’s Student Entrepreneurial Program (StEP) played a significant role in the founding of the business, and West said the StEP loans have been a major resource throughout the process.