On-Line Food Service Has Trouble Delivering

"Digital.Sustenance.Delivered" proclaim the bright yellow signs that have appeared around campus over the past week to advertise Campusfood.com.

The business, which allows students quick access to menus of nearby takeout restaurants and the chance to order their meals through the Internet, has recently offered its services to Harvard affiliates.

Campusfood.com makes money by posting paid advertisements on its Internet site. There is no charge to the restaurants or the students who use the ser.

Catherine So '01, a Harvard representative for the company, helped bring the company to Cambridge. So, who was hired two months ago to start the process, was responsible for everything from finding the restaurants to postering on the Harvard campus.

While So and company co-founder Graham B. Dickson said the expansion has been going well, the response from restaurants that subscribe to the service has been less enthusiastic.

The co-owner of the Harvard House of Pizza, Irene Stamatakis, said her restaurant has had its menu on the World Wide Web for about a month. Although the service is free, she said she is not sure her restaurant will continue to subscribe.

"It didn't really work out. We didn't get any orders that I know of," Stamatakis said.

A manager of Wing Works, Rich Federico, expressed similar confusion about his store's role in Campusfood.com.

"The service sounded very good when the guy came around about a month ago. We haven't talked to them since, though. We don't know anything about how orders are tracked or about whether we will be set up on-line," Federico said.

Dickson said he was surprised by the restaurants' concern but added that he believes the Harvard-area business need to wait before the benefits of being involved in the Internet service become more apparent.

"There's a learning curve for the businesses. They will get accustomed to our orders coming in. We have only really been going for one week," Dickson said.

The idea for a business that would allow students to order a variety of takeout food on-line was developed two years ago by Dickson and his roommate at the University of Pennsylvania. Both computer science majors, they complet- ed the programming themselves and opened theWeb site to the Penn campus during their senioryear in 1997.

Upon accessing the Campusfood.com Web site,students register by giving a college address,e-mail address and a phone number. This allowsthem to see the list of restaurants in their areawhich subscribe to the service and to place foodorders online.

From there, Campusfood.com relays the order tothe specific restaurant, and the order isdelivered.

Campusfood.com became a full-time business forits founders upon their graduation. It has sinceexpanded to include nine schools around theNortheast, and the founders plan for greaterexpansion in the future.

"Hopefully, we will be able to cover the entireEast Coast from Atlanta up through Toronto,"Dickson said.

Dickson said the weather is at least one personwhy his company is focusing its efforts on theNortheast.

"People use the on-line services more when theweather is colder," Dickson said

Upon accessing the Campusfood.com Web site,students register by giving a college address,e-mail address and a phone number. This allowsthem to see the list of restaurants in their areawhich subscribe to the service and to place foodorders online.

From there, Campusfood.com relays the order tothe specific restaurant, and the order isdelivered.

Campusfood.com became a full-time business forits founders upon their graduation. It has sinceexpanded to include nine schools around theNortheast, and the founders plan for greaterexpansion in the future.

"Hopefully, we will be able to cover the entireEast Coast from Atlanta up through Toronto,"Dickson said.

Dickson said the weather is at least one personwhy his company is focusing its efforts on theNortheast.

"People use the on-line services more when theweather is colder," Dickson said