College dorm 'snack box' a runaway success

Speakers: Li Ningjing, Sam Duckett and Lu Sirui

[Photo: thinkstockphotos.com]

Last time we talked about a survey that shows university students are willing to start their own businesses. Now we've got one very successful case of a college student establishing his own start-up.

Lan Yao, a junior at the Wuhan Software Vocational College, has started up his business by selling food through "snack boxes" in college dormitory rooms, earning 1,200 yuan (around $ 180 dollars) per day.

The "snack box" is a transparent plastic tub containing drinks, instant noodles, spicy strips and other snacks popular among college students.

Students simply choose what they want from the box, and pay for the food by scanning the QR code printed on the lid.

When the snacks are sold out, the box will be resupplied.

If someone eats the snacks without paying, Lan Yao says he will remove the box from the dorm room. But it seems almost everyone pays honestly.

Only a year into the enterprise, Lan is already expanding.

So far he's installed "snack boxes" in 3,000 dorm rooms at 5 local colleges, and hired 20 college students as part-time workers to resupply snacks.

Lan's startup has won the first prize in the Wuhan College Entrepreneurship Competition.

One food company has even offered Lan Yao an advertising deal worth 120,000 yuan (around $ 18,000 dollars).

The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI.