
A rising delivery service with an emphasis on speed, affordability and convenience is coming to the University of Florida campus.
Founded in 2021 by students from the University of California-Santa Barbara, Snag is a 10-minute delivery service designed for college students.
The service operates exclusively on college campuses, providing students with fast, affordable access to snacks, drinks and other essential items.
In an interview with Mainstreet, Carter Zwick, partnerships lead for Snag, said they are similar to other delivery services, like Gopuff, but are also different in that they only operate on college campuses and charge cheaper fees ($1 to $3).
Zwick said what also makes Snag different from delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash is that it stocks its own products in a warehouse on campuses.
“We call them dark stores,” he said. “In these dark stores, we have anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 products. They’re not huge.”
Zwick said in these stores, employees receive online orders through the Snag app, pack them up, and then deliver them to the customer.
“The goal is that we’re delivering them in 10 minutes or less,” he said.
According to Zwick, Snag currently has stores on 11 college campuses across the U.S., with UF being the 12th.
Zwick said Snag’s UF store is located at 1019 W. University Ave. in Gainesville. It is expected to open by Sept. 1.
When asked what made the university a good fit for Snag, Zwick noted the layout of UF’s campus.
“The way the campus is set up, it’s pretty compact,” he said. “It’s not too far. It’s easy for our drivers to get to each side of campus…”
Zwick said Snag drivers will use scooters to make deliveries on campus to places such as fraternities, sororities, dorms, classrooms, libraries, etc. These delivery drivers can usually be spotted with a big red backpack with the words “Snag” written on it.
All of the drivers are full-time employees, Zwick said, working four-hour shifts.
Zwick said Snag only hires students to work for the company.
“The people in the warehouse, the people driving, the people actually doing the marketing on each of our [college] campuses are all college students,” he said. “We try to be ultra ingrained in the college market with these campuses.”
To start off, Zwick said UF students will only be able to place orders through the app from noon-12 a.m.
“The goal is to eventually expand those to be able to service all hours,” he said.
For more information about Snag and to download the app, visit https://snagdelivery.app/.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.