The QuickShock convenience store-bus at the Hughes Metroplex cost “more than a new car” to develop, according to Overland Charters owner Kelly Fankhauser. Overland Charters, which runs and maintains WSU’s shuttle buses, runs the convenience store.

Two weeks ago, the store put up signs on the bus stating: “We average 50 customers per day. We need 120 to stay.”

The shop opened in mid-September. So far for the month of October, the bus made $1786 in profit, according to analytics available on the store’s checkout stand, given by an anonymous QuickShock employee. Though not giving an exact number, Fankhauser said the developmental cost of the store was “$30,000 to $50,000.”

At $30,000, it would take the store more than 16 months to turn a profit, based on a $1786 per month average. At $50,000, it would take more than 27 months. This is without taking the cost of operation into account.

Fankhauser said if Overland Charters wasn’t financially strong and so deeply invested in WSU, he would close shop at the Metroplex. Fankhauser paid for the shop out of his own pocket.

“If I was an individual doing it, it would already have been gone,” Fankhauser said. “I’m still here because I own Overland Charters. If it was you, you would have already folded it up. So I’m trying to, I guess, give the students more of a chance to utilize it before we take it somewhere else.”

Fankhauser said he anticipated more business at the store.

“My theory was, as easy as it is to park at the Metroplex, be able to get a coffee there, get on a bus and be taken almost the the doorstep of your class, why would you walk clear across campus (for snacks)?” Fankhauser said.

Fankhauser said he wishes he could have opened the store the first day of school, but said the shop was a more complex project than anticipated.

An anonymous QuickShock employee said she sees the shop as potentially a worthy investment, but thinks the location is reducing business, in addition to the fact that the shop only accepts cards, not cash, and other factors.

“I think people don’t know what it is, and it’s also kind of intimidating,” the employee said. “There’s someone looking at you the whole time and you feel obligated to get something.”

She said she sees the same people coming into the shop repeatedly.

Students at the Metroplex agreed that they don’t see many students using the shop.

Criminal justice senior Savannah Swearingen said she uses the shop, but only for conveniently located coffee.

“I don’t see anyone else using it,” Swearingen said. “I’m actually the only one in there when I go in there.”

Fankhauser said that though QuickShock is currently not operating as anticipated, he is confident that business will grow.