Handle Delivery, a delivery service specifically for colleges, has been gaining popularity around campus.
Handle was developed in 2020 by its CEO Chase Robbins and co-founder Mia McCarthy, who were freshmen at USC at the time, during COVID-19 campus closures.
“We were trying to order ice cream late at night and we ordered it on DoorDash. It got delayed and arrived melted,” Robbins said. “We were like there’s gotta be a better way. And from there, we kind of put the business plan together.”
According to Robbins, he and McCarthy put all of their savings into opening their first location at USC and found success there. 
When wanting to look for a second location, Robbins and McCarthy searched around the West Coast and decided on UO, Robbins said. 
“We flew, I think, three times in the process of setting up the store. We got connected with Nathaniel Leof, who is an Oregon alum now, but at the time was just a junior there,” Robbins said. “He joined the team as the leader of that campus and the rest is history.”
UO Handle Operations Manager Miguel de la Piedra spoke to the Daily Emerald about his time working at Handle and his perspectives on the company as a whole.
“I think what really differentiates us is that [Handle] is for students, by students,” de la Piedra said. “It’s fully student-run. Even Chase himself was a student at USC. I’m a junior this year and every single person who works at Handle is a student, mainly sophomores and juniors.”
According to de la Piedra, working at Handle has allowed him to open his doors to more connections with fellow peers and Handle co-workers.
“Even when I used to be a Handler for a year and a half, you see people that were also Handlers and make friends and relate with them,” de la Piedra said. “It’s really just building those connections through there and I feel like it makes people a lot more comfortable.”
According to Robbins, Handle is not like every ordinary university delivery service.
“We really care about the customer,” Robbins said. “And we’re really building a product for ourselves, that’s the other piece. I think that marketing only gets you so far, you really have to deliver a consistently great experience.”
According to de la Piedra, the student-to-student universal understanding among Handlers and buyers is prevalent.
“Obviously, we’re not like DoorDash where we’re serving full meals, but it’s mainly just snacks and drinks,” de la Piedra said. “When someone’s tired at 11 p.m., they want a Red Bull and they’re studying, and we can get it there within 15 minutes. I think that’s the big factor and why Handle grew apart from like Duffl and all those.”
Around Greek Life entities on campus, Handle banners have been hung up signifying a partnership between Handle and that sorority or fraternity.
According to Robbins, the banners and partnerships began when UO Greek Life organizations were coming to Handle saying how they loved their company and wanted to work together.
“We came up with the banner together. Some of them are more funny, some of them just say the name of the fraternity or sorority,” Robbins said. “And then that house gets a discount if they put the banner on the house.”
The discount with the posted banner is 10%, according to Robbins and de la Piedra.
According to de la Piedra, every Greek Life house gets an automatic 5% discount, but the offer with the banner and 10% discount has helped Handle grow its connections around UO.
“SAE, Theta Chi, Phi Psi, PIKE and a lot of other houses have them,” de la Piedra said. “This year, I really started pushing out banners more towards fraternity and sorority live-outs and those just seem to keep consistently coming in.”
In terms of partnerships unrelated to Greek Life, de la Piedra said that he and the Handle team have worked with Eugene Nest by reaching out and are in the process of renting out Rennie’s Landing for two hours for a prize of a competition.
“What we’re really getting into right now is trying to partner with the athletes,” de la Piedra said. “We’re reaching out to some track, football, basketball and softball athletes and [are] just trying to get those deals and promotions through that.”
According to Robbins, Handle’s popularity is increasing and their team is planning to open three to five new locations by June.
“We have over 20 employees at University of Oregon,” Robbins said. “And over 100 in total.”
Handle is also popular among students for selling alcohol and tobacco products.
“We have licenses for the tobacco products like vapes or cigarettes, and we have a separate license for the alcohol,” Robbins said. “That’s all governed by the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.”
According to Robbins, there are measures taken in and out of the Handle application to ensure safe selling.
“You can’t buy tobacco or alcohol without putting your ID in the app that gets scanned by a third-party service that we use to make sure that the person is of age,” Robbins said. “And then when we deliver the product, the Handler will check the ID of the customer and make sure it matches. There are a lot of other restrictions, too. We can’t deliver to on-campus dorms or anyone that is intoxicated.” 

Gallery • 4 Photos

The Handle warehouse is located on 13th Ave and serves as a quick delivery service for students at The University of Oregon. (Alyssa Garcia/Emerald)