Smart food lockers with hidden ghost kitchens crack the code on college dining problems

Do ghosts go through evolution? Ghost kitchens apparently do. And the evolution we’re seeing is taking place largely on college campuses, the perfect environment for these culinary poltergeists.

College students aren’t afraid of ghost kitchens, but rather embrace the fast, frictionless, convenient and accurate meal experience of smart food lockers from Apex Order Pickup Solutions, a newly formed company with its roots as Apex Supply Chain Technologies, an early pioneer in industrial vending technology.

Apex has been working with several colleges and universities, seeing measurable success with the smart lockers, in one case reporting a 300% increase in food sales for the 2023-24 school year after installing the lockers at a major campus café. Other than that, a huge selling point is flexibility and the possibility for pop-ups and limited-time offers that are known to build excitement for students.

Montclair State’s foodservice is managed by Compass Group-owned Gourmet Dining, New Jersey’s largest regional dining service serving higher-ed in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Brian Conway, Gourmet Dining’s resident district manager, says the lockers have satisfied the students’ technology cravings, and eliminated things like bad customer interactions, kosher uncertainty, allergen concerns and long lines.

How the lockers work

“We set up the locker system up front, and an expediter sits between the concepts and the lockers,” Conway says, explaining that each concept has their own chute, and the ghost kitchen looks like a grill station, with all the components for that moment’s mix of concepts. “All I have to do is turn around and now I’m working on the table of the Smash ‘N Grab grill.”

“It helps the employees, too,” Conway points out. “Instead of trying to look the part and act the part and talk the part, they can focus more on the food part of their job,” and the beauty of it is, they can showcase their skill in more than one restaurant.”

Kosher Korner is part of the smart locker system, making it easier for students to keep kosher.

Never a dull moment

“Now we can change the concepts on the fly,” Conway explains. The pickup lockers are located in Blanton Hall, a main dining hall and dorm, and were installed last fall semester, replacing a front-facing Chili’s. There are total of six lockers, two sets of three, next to each other with each set being a different color.

From the mobile ordering app, the ghost kitchens’ menus can be found, including Jersey Mike’s, Virtual Kitchen with Smash ‘N Grab smashburger concept, Cheesology mac ‘n cheese, Chick N Bap and Kosher Korner, with a kosher freezer in the back.

“The design allows me to host as many different ghost kitchen concepts in the back as I want,” Conway says. “Behind this locker system, I can have an anchor concept. Jersey Mike’s is one of the main ones.”

Partnering with unlimited smaller local eateries, like those specializing in hoagies or meatballs, is another feature of the lockers. “We partner with a restaurant like that, bring in meatballs, and then once they’re gone, a new concept will appear.”

Smart lockers meet students where they are: In need of fast convenience, and preferring no contact a lot of the time.

Future of food lockers

For the current state of mind of many college students, still feeling the isolating effects of Covid and lingering anxiety, the lockers are meeting them where they are, Conway says, and he’s looking at installing them in other venues around campus.

“It not only lets both commuting and residential students get through faster when class lets out, but they like the technology but they’re also suffering from dealing with the effects of anxiety…they’re not sitting with their friends as often and the locker system plays to their personalities.”

Anxiety over allergies and special diets are eased with the lockers as well, Conway has noticed. “Plus, the students are so accustomed to being on their phones already. The ordering process is easy. The students’ dining experience is different today than it was three years ago.”