Ashland U. Debuts Online Grocery

Ashland University is rolling out a new online grocery called The Eagle Market Place.

“The Dining Services department is excited to officially open The Eagle Market Place as it adds another great service available to the Ashland campus,” says Fred Geib, the general manager of dining operations. “The initial debut of the program will be on campus and will be made available to our students, faculty and staff. The market place is very easy to implement because all of the products being sold are already in the inventory of dining services. We do plenty of deliveries around campus all year long as well so it is very easy to just repackage and sell these products making it convenient for anyone on campus to buy their groceries.”

The university plans to a variety of features such as picking out an item on the webpage, purchasing it and then either picking it up or getting it delivered.

“The service is very affordable as well, as it features competitive prices to those in the surrounding Ashland area,” Geib says.

The inventory will include some of Ashland specialty products such as AU Cookies, Tuffy Chow and AU Banana Bread. Slated for roll-out in the near future are home-meal replacement sit-down dinners called Home in a Hurry.

“The Home in a Hurry meal is there for those employees who work late and don’t have the time to prepare a meal when they arrive at home," Geib explains. "With these meal options, you can get a full sit-down dinner made fresh in the dining hall and ready for pick up and go. It’s quick, its ‘homemade’ by our chefs and it’s convenient so that you’re not worrying about making dinner at home, but still being able to sit down and enjoy a meal with your family. An example of a meal through this option would be mashed potatoes, meatloaf and fresh veggies or an additional side.”

Geib says the Eagle Market place also will be convenient for students of the university.

“A vast majority of students who live on campus have meal plans. Certain meal plans allow students to have ‘meal swipes’ and students will be allowed to use these as a payment option,” he notes. “The Eagle Market place will be a great new option for equivalency to be used.”

Deliveries can also be made to the student apartments. “We offer various fresh produce and meats and the students can select these options to be delivered right to them saving them the trip to the local grocery and making their shopping much simpler," Geib says. "Students are able to use meal swipes, Eagle Dollars or credit/debit cards too.”