Tailgate delivery service launches at Wake Forest

By Liz Webber

It's football season and that means lots of students and visitors are on your campus. With all the extra bodies, you can certainly see some added sales at your dining locations, but what about those tailgaters who don't want to step into one of your brick-and-mortar locations? Are you doing anything to capture those sales, because if you don't someone else will.

And that's the case at Wake Forest University, where this football season fans will be able to order tailgating supplies directly to their tailgate spots through a new partnership with Lowes Foods. 

Fans can order directly through the Lowes Foods to Go website for a selection of grill-ready meats, party trays, sides, beverages and paper goods. Lowes will deliver orders in a vintage truck. There is no fee for delivery. 

Customers must order by 8 p.m. the night before a game. The retailer will also have a small store in the university’s Deacon Tailgate Town that will sell tailgating basics like paper plates and cups, propane and wine openers. 

Lowes is based in Winston-Salem, N.C., where Wake Forest is located. 

“Our partnership with Wake Forest Athletics as sponsor of Deacon Tailgate Town has been great for us, the football program and fans alike. Now, we’re taking it to another level with the ability to deliver tailgate orders directly to fans in the BB&T Field parking lot,” Lowes Foods president Tim Lowe said in a press release. 

“We’ve worked in conjunction with Wake Forest Athletics to make the game day experience better than ever for fans and feel comfortable saying that no other football program in America offers free grocery deliveries to fans that are enjoying pre-game tailgating. All that’s left to say is, ‘Go Deacs!’” he added. 

“Since opening Deacon Tower nearly a decade ago, we at Wake Forest Athletics have been on a mission to make ours one of the best game day experiences in America,” said Wake Forest Athletics senior associate athletic director Bill Oakes. “Having Lowes Foods set up a mini store within Deacon Tailgate Town and making deliveries in a vintage truck is just an incredible program for our fans that no other football program offers. I can’t wait to see the smiling faces of fans getting their pictures taken with the vintage truck.”