What do college students do when they are far from home and need some help – or even just a hug and a home-cooked meal? Well, if your own mother can’t be there, the next best thing just might be a remote “concierge” mom-for-hire. Yes, there are now concierge services developed specifically to help college students.
Priced at $450 a year, plus delivery fees, concierge moms perform some of the duties a local mom might help with performing. Some of the tasks could be transportation, company at doctor’s visits, grocery shopping, legal help, apartment hunting, and even giving gifts.
Another Mom concierge service based in Boston charges a lot more – up to $10,000 for an academic year and caps the number of students at 30. The service began largely to help foreign students at boarding schools in Boston, but now has expanded to helping college students. Each student has access to as many as five “second moms” who can help with classes, tutoring, and more.
Another type of service is Daisy Bug Delivery in Tampa which accepts deliveries for students, and then hand delivers packages to the right place. Students ship everything from bedding, to minifridges, to laundry carts, furniture, and more. Since June, the service has worked with more than 250 students on shipments and deliveries.
Who will you call?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Poll students: Has anyone had experiences with concierge services?
- Who wished they had this service?
- View website for Concierge Services: https://www.bostoncss.com/
- View website for Campus Concierge: https://campusconciergeservice.com/
- Divide students into teams.
- Have each team brainstorm a concierge-type of services.
- Define the target market, services, prices, and promotion for the service.
Source: Weiss, T. (19 September 2023). A mother’s love – a bargain at $450 per year, plus applicable fees. Wall Street Journal.
