When Sarah Laningham, Class of 2008, walked through campus as an agricultural engineering major, she never thought owning a night-operating business would become her life.
Laningham, a College Station native, is the owner and sole employee of Moonlight Munchies – a late night snack delivery service providing everything from pints of ice cream to Fuego tacos to the students of Texas A&M.
Customers order what they want directly through Laningham’s website, paying online with a credit card or with cash upon delivery.
“People can browse on the website everything I have in stock,” Laningham said. “Pretty much anything they want, I’ll be open to delivering.”
Laningham has been growing her business since she started in the fall of 2011, adding more and more items to her delivery list based on customer requests.
Among these additions was delivery from Mexican restaurant Fuego, something she said has become extremely popular with students.
“A year ago, I added delivering Fuego, thinking that students would like that,” Laningham said. “I’m constantly looking for new stuff that people my age would like delivered.”
The inspiration behind Laningham’s business was seeing people hunt for convenient food options.
“I think that people are kind of moving toward convenience,” Laningham said. “Also it’s kind of a fun thing – people are always surprised that they can get things delivered directly to their door.”
Laningham does all the work herself and is looking to one day be able to hire more drivers.
“I do want to eventually hire more drivers,” Laningham said. “It’s more difficult than putting up a Craigslist ad and getting a driver.
Although Laningham runs a website where customers can place orders, she relies mainly on word of mouth for her business.
“I wasn’t sure if it would work or not, so I put up a website and then I started advertising,” Laningham said. “There’s been more time for word of mouth, so I rely mainly on word of mouth and people telling each other about it.”
Marvin Tran, freshman mathematics major, heard about Moonlight Munchies through a friend on Twitter, and decided to give it a try.
“I was up late at night studying and I saw on Twitter that a friend had ordered from her,” Tran said. “I was craving Fuego and I don’t have a car, so I decided to research it and found out she could deliver.”
Tran said he would recommend Moonlight Munchies because it’s hard for students without cars to get to food places late at night.
“Late at night, Moonlight Munchies is the way to go,” Tran said. “If you want food and you don’t have a car, it’s the best way to get food without leaving the dorm.”
Laningham said one aspect she enjoys about the job is meeting students.
“I enjoy meeting customers and I have some regulars that can be pretty entertaining,” Laningham said. “When you drop off stuff, you get to know what people are up to.”
Chase Murphree, senior petroleum engineering major, said Laningham’s service is reliable.
“I would recommend it to others because it is exactly as advertised,” Murphree said. “You order whatever you want from her website and she gets it to you in a timely manner.”
Murphree said he enjoys that Laningham adds a personal flair to her work.
“She has a personal touch with her business, and I give her a great big hug now every time she delivers my oh-so-delicious Fuego tacos,” Murphree said.