By Shanleigh Brosseau, Editor in Chief
This summer, the University received a new addition on campus, My Lil’ HealthBot – a robot retailer that offers health and personal care products ranging from cold medication and phone chargers, to contraceptives.
My Lil’s Healthbot isn’t just your average vending machine, it’s a new form of a technological service referred to as a robot retailer.
According to Benjamin Demianiuk, Director of Business Development, any additional services that are available “after-hours” are a benefit to students, after positive feedback with the addition of the Tea Bot on campus.
Last year, the university introduced the Tea Bot in the Cliff Fielding building, which has now been moved into the Parker Building. The Tea Bot is a robotic kiosk that offers “grab-and-go tea”.
“There was a real desire to bring in the Tea Bot,” Demianiuk said. “It was sort of a natural leap for us to be able to provide additional services for students [after-hours].”
“Students don’t study 9 to 5 and most students don’t wake up until the afternoon,” he said.
“So the idea of being able to provide something as simple as getting a Tylenol or something they need while they’re studying, rather than having to go back home or to residence, it’s something we can put centrally on campus that students have the ability to access.”
Currently, Laurentian’s health bot is located in the Bowling Alley (or the first floor of the Arts Building.)
“The idea was to put it in a high traffic area,” Demianiuk said.
“This is our first year having [the bot] be in the Bowling Alley, we’re going to assess, and we may have to move the machine or add additional machines for our campus.”
According to Demianiuk other area of campus where this service might be needed include the residence buildings and the further end of campus where he said food and other services are limited.
While Demianiuk hasn’t heard direct feedback from students, he said the machine is being used.
“At the end of the day, if you know there’s even a small fraction of students using it, it means that it was helpful for them and that’s what we’re trying to do is make it more accessible and easy for students to use.”
Tim Decker, CEO of My Lil’ HealthBot, said the project began with Wilfred Laurier University, where the first health bot was set up.
“It happened organically, where we had come up with this idea for a more convenient way to purchase all the personal care products,” Decker said.
“I think we’ve all sort of been there where you have a headache or you need something from the drugstore. But it’s late at night, when it’s really bad.”
Decker mentioned the hassle of heading to drugstores late at night, or traveling to stores that might be far away from campus to retrieve necessary products.
“That was sort of how we came up with the idea,” he said.
Decker said the company has expanded to close to 20 universities in the US and Canada.
“It’s sort of solving the same problem for Laurentian where, you know, they want to provide access to these products for students. I think everyone who’s been at your campus knows it’s not very close to anything, right?”
“If you’re a student that doesn’t have a car and you live [on campus] and you need something, maybe you have a headache or maybe you have a cold or maybe you just need some feminine hygiene products or contraceptives, there’s not a lot of options,” he said. “That’s sort of why we were brought in.”
One of the benefits for students, according to Decker, is the added anonymity of purchasing certain products.
“We allow students to have that privacy and I think that’s been the biggest surprise, is how big of a factor privacy has been when it comes to students using [the bot],” he added.
“There’s some students that are from different cultures, different backgrounds, and their parents are hesitant or they frown on them purchasing products like contraception or certain feminine hygiene products,” Decker said.
“We’ve had students come to us and [say] ‘Thank you so much for having the health bot on campus because before I was embarrassed to go to the drugstore and buy these products or I was afraid my parents would find out’.”
Decker said the company’s main focus right now is to remain within the university market, where the company has three years of experience in understanding the challenges faced by universities.
“We’re really passionate about the university space,” Decker said. “We like to interact with university students, we understand universities [and] the pain points that universities have.”
According to Decker, university students are hired to run campus level operations for the company. These students are responsible for campus promotions, restocking the health bot, as well as customer support.
“We call that our campus family, and it’s a big part of what we’re building,” he said.
“It’s not just retail or personal care products, it’s also a way for university students to get valuable work experience.”
Decker said ultimately, the company hopes to launch a mobile app including a rewards feature and the ability to order products on demand.
Laurentian’s health bot, “Laurie” contains products ranging from Advil and phone charges, to condoms. Decker said product selection is about balance.
“University students are inundated with choice. I think there can be too much choice sometimes,” he said.
“What we want to try to do is take away any sort of anxiety and just put the right product in there for what you need. So you don’t have to think about it.”
Decker said he’s always looking into introducing new products like beauty products, or more sustainable brands.
“We’re constantly trying to figure out what products [students] want to buy,” he said.
“Everything is [based on] health and personal care, but there’s a lot of different things that we want to try to see if it will be successful or not.”