In the city of Oxford, where UberEats, Doordash and Oxford To You thrive, a new form of delivery has an innovative approach to delivery.
Snag, founded in 2021 by UC Santa Barbara students Mason Cohen and Jacob Duijser, was created to provide an affordable solution for students needing snacks, alcohol and nicotine products, especially for those without access to a car.
The business relies solely on electric scooters for deliveries, allowing it to expand rapidly. The company at each campus is run by college students, who wear ski masks in cold weather and reflective suits at night—making them stand out as intimidating with their masked appearance. Just recently, the company implemented mandatory helmets for all deliveries as well.
Delivery hours nationwide are from noon to midnight, with orders exclusively placed through the Snag Delivery app. Available items include alcohol, snacks, groceries, merchandise, “party solutions,” and “student life” essentials, such as Advil, dishwasher detergent and trash bags. Your order arrives in approximately 10 minutes.
Each year, Snag’s most prominent partner schools participate in a week-long competition for a chance to secure a spot in the top five and win big prizes. The goal? For Snag, it’s an opportunity to gain free marketing as students compete for various prizes throughout the event.
During the week-long event, houses have seven days to earn points. After registering, each house is given a unique code for checkout, which grants a 5% discount on Snag orders. The total amount spent using the code contributes to the house’s score. Creative Instagram stories showcasing Snag earn extra points, with each post valued at $20.
This year’s Snag-A-Bag House competition in Oxford ran from Sept. 19 to Sept. 26, with more than a dozen houses competing to win one of the five prizes, including a 20-foot inflatable waterslide, a flatscreen TV, NFL tickets, a boombox speaker and a bar tab.
2024 top-place winners:
First Place: Island Time (group of senior girls)
Second Place: Endzone (group of junior girls)
Third Place: Wrigleyville (group of senior girls)
“The Snag competition created a fun community competition,” said Morgan Clark, a senior from the winning team, Island Time. “Involving numerous houses from all over Oxford in a game like this brought everyone closer together. I loved seeing everyone’s content, from jumping on the roof to making music videos with snag merch from head to toe.”
Snag workers explained their revenue increases significantly every year during this competition, and they see the effects weeks later. This is because community members become reliant on the service after using and hearing about it, as explained by the Snag Deliver, Store CEO and Miami student Thomas Skaggs.
“I delivered more that week than I have all year, but it was mainly to the same houses participating in the competition, which are all relatively close together,” said Skaggs. “However, the competition definitely creates an uptick in delivery volume, which is great for Snag.”
The Wrigleyville house spent the week brainstorming ideas for their Instagram stories, explaining the creative process of coming up with funny photo ideas was the most enjoyable part of the competition.
“We spent way more money than we ever should have on Snag deliveries that week, but it was worth it because now our house has a huge boombox speaker we can use all year,” Rory Summerville, resident of Wrigleyville, said. “I had friends from other schools texting me about what Snag was after seeing my posts on Instagram, so it’s clear that the advertising Snag is encouraging us to do through the competition is working.”
