While walking around campus, you’ll likely run into a little black box with digital eyes. It might sound scary at first, especially if you’re walking around at night, but don’t be alarmed, it’s just the new Kiwibots delivering food to students. But how many students are truly utilizing these food-delivering robots?
The Kiwibots are cute little “lunch boxes on wheels” and have recently made their home on our campus. With just the click of a button and a unique code from the app, it allows the person who ordered food to open the robot box and unlock its door to enjoy their meal. Sounds easy enough right?
When I first saw the robots on the Lewis University’s Instagram page, I thought “How cool are these to make it easier for students to receive food.” But then I saw that these bots require an expensive subscription plan in order to use them.
There are multiple plans for the bots.he Silver plan is $40 per semester for 15 deliveries, the Gold plan $109 per semester for 45 deliveries and the Platinum plan is $159 per semester for 70 deliveries. So roughly each delivery comes out to a little over $2, which doesn’t seem like a lot of money. But as college students, we already pay expenses for meal plans, books, tuition, classes, and even more. Now they want us to spend more money on these robots.
I surveyed 40 random students about the Kiwibots, and 100% of them said they do not have a subscription. When asked why they do not have a subscription 80% said it was too expensive, 12% said they don’t see the point in them, 6% said they aren’t useful, and 2% said they aren’t sure what the subscriptions are. Seems as if many students just see the bots around campus, but aren’t exactly sure on how they work. Lastly, I asked if the Kiwibots were to be included in their meal plans, then would they use them, and 100% said they would…
Now I’m not trying to completely destroy the robots because I think they can be beneficial to us students, especially student-athletes, because sometimes we just want to be able to go straight back to our dorms and eat our dinners there. Plus, it can save Borromeo residents from that hike. However, they need to get more information out about the robots and include at least some deliveries (more than two) in the already expensive meal plans, or at least allow Flyer dollars to pay for the delivery fee. The Kiwibots have potential on this campus, they just need to be placed at the right price.
