Upon its opening in August, Marywood became the first college in Pennsylvania to open an Amazon Go Shop and one of the first in the United States.

“The school thought it was a really interesting concept and it was a chance to be known for,” stated Executive Chef and Director of Operations Robert Misko.

The idea behind opening the store in Nazareth Dining Hall was mainly because Gourmet Dining, the outsourcing company for dining services at Marywood University, wanted to redesign the space.

The store is located just inside Nazareth, and with the store located next to the exit, theft is one worry that would come with a store, especially one with little to no supervision. Misko however reassured that the dining staff has not seen theft and that security cameras would have picked up anything that the workers at the counter could have missed.

Although the Amazon Shop has received some praise, it has not been the success that Misko expected.

“I was thinking that it was going to be more popular. I don’t know if people are still afraid of it or they don’t know what to do,” explained Misko.

Misko encourages that if students need clarification on how to use the store to ask him.

“They could come in here and say, ‘Hey let’s go for a walk and show me how this works,’ and I would be thrilled to do it,” said Misko.

The finances of the store may not have been what was expected so far, however, Misko stays optimistic.

“The store does bring in financial revenue but like all projects, we have an initial investment and that investment once reached then becomes the question of the profit generated,” stated Misko.

Since the beginning of the spring semester, Misko has noticed more students using the Amazon Go Shop. He mainly sees students using the store when they run into the dining hall to grab something small in between classes.

A major complaint about the shop is that they do not allow Pacer Points as a form of payment. However, there will be changes to work towards allowing students to use their dining dollars as payment.

“The first step will be dining dollars, I think points are another step in the future,” Misko said.

Sophomore Kaeyln Gerencher shared her opinions on the changes with the Amazon Go Store.

“I think it will be very convenient to use our dining dollars. More people will try the store out and I won’t have to use my own money,” said Gerencher

“You know college students don’t have credit cards and if they do it’s for emergencies…so by using the dining dollars it might get more people to try it,” stated Misko.

Misko hopes that by the end of this semester, dining dollars will be used as payments.

Contact the writer: [email protected]