For years, rumors and promises of a vending machine have spread around Rockhurst. With pledges from SGA and pleas from the students, a vending machine has been in hot demand. This year, through the work of the Entrepreneurship for Others (EFO) class, the dream of a vending machine has come true. “Rock Stock” opened for business in the Barry Commons May 6.
The EFO class is a semester course available for juniors and seniors. In the class, students seek out opportunities to gain real world experience in managing a business while also helping their community. The class revolves heavily around forming problem-solving abilities and entrepreneurship mindsets.
For the past few years, the class has been working on the ambitious task of trying to secure a vending machine. What would become known as “Rock Stock” had to face many issues before being cleared to launch. The major challenge was keeping the vending machine from conflicting with FLIK, the school’s provider of dining services. The class didn’t want to interfere with FLIK’s operations or create competition. The way EFO students solved this is by not having food in the vending machines.
Rather than being a snack machine, as most other vending machines are, the Rock Stock is a small storefront with items specifically sold to solve what the students of EFO learned are problems within the community. Rock Stock aims to “refuel” the students. It looks to accomplish this is through the sale of chargers, hydration packets, deodorants, mints and more items along those lines. This allows the vending machine to be stocked and profitable while still not competing with FLIK.
The reasons EFO students specifically chose the “refueling” products is three-fold. Research done by EFO and articulated in a pitch made by seniors Luke Imlay and Drew McGalliard found 28% of high-school students fall asleep in class at least once a week, students who don’t eat breakfast have lower performance in school and students constantly borrow school supplies. The stock of the new vending machine fights each of these issues: selling school supplies so students don’t have to borrow them, and hydration packets and protein powders to keep students full and energized.
These reasons inspired the Rock Stock motto, “We got what you forgot.”
Prices range from $1.50 for a hydration packet to $10 for a charging cord.
“I bought a charger just the other week,” said freshman Alexander Graziano. “It was really handy to have one so accessible.”
On top of all of these things, Rock Stock plans to add small toys to the vending machine. These include fidget spinners, Tech Decks and small footballs.
As mentioned, efforts to bring a vending machine have been ongoing for a while. Originally, Rock Stock was “Hawklet Express,” a Rockhurst storefront cafe. Students of EFO went through 16 different business plans, three field trips and hours of presentations before declaring that the cafe was not possible.
After this failure, the class was still hungry to get their small business idea off the ground. Taking a semester off, members of the EFO compiled a list of problems with their previous business plans and designed a new business one. This list of problems led them to a list of solutions. The EFO students needed something that did not require staffing, did not compete with FLIK, and allowed for entrepreneurship experience, among other things. This list culminated into the new business plan which ended up being the Rock Stock vending we see in the Barry Commons today.
“We spent a lot of time on it and it was a whole team effort,” said junior Shane McEnany. “Everybody had to pitch in with ideas and information to make it happen.”
The final solution didn’t come together overnight, however. The plan took multiple semesters and different EFO classes to accomplish. This means that not all classes had the opportunity to see their work come to fruition. The soon-to-graduate senior class barely got to witness the vending machine, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t pleased with how things turned out.
“My partner Drew and I were thrilled to see our hard work finally pay off and happy to leave behind an improvement to Rockhurst,” said Imlay.
To initially get the vending machine, Rock Stock needed to borrow $5,497 from Rockhurst–$5,124 for the actual vending machine and the rest for initial stock. The Rock Stock staff aims to pay back Rockhurst within a year. With the attention the machine has received so far, though, they could move from debt repayment to pure profit sooner than anticipated.
“I always thought it was weird we didn’t have a vending machine,” said junior Danny Hodes. “I can think of so many times it would’ve been really convenient to have around.”
In addition to running a real business and trying to turn a profit, Rock Stock is also living out the “Men for Others” credo by planning to donate a portion of the proceeds to a nonprofit.
Bringing Rock Stock to the halls of Rockhurst was a team effort of both past and present students. Keeping it going will also require ongoing collaboration and cooperation. With a new EFO class every semester, the responsibility for running the machine will be passed along each year. Next school year, current junior Landon Lobaugh will take charge of Rock Stock.
