Q&A: Fuzzy’s at Campus West
Fuzzy’s is all about our fans and at one of our locations in Fort Collins, Fuzzy’s at Campus West, we are all about Colorado State University! Born four years ago, Fuzzy’s at Campus West has grown in harmony with the ever-expanding west side of CSU. Now the go-to stop for inexpensive eats and super unique margs, Fuzzy’s success has been nothing short of ideal. This week we sat down with it’s General Manager, Kara Malatia over a basket of tacos, in order to gain better insights on the harmony between the CSU campus and this successful location.
What makes Fuzzy’s so appealing to college students?
I think our reasonable prices and our portion sizes are what make us so appealing to college students. Our location in relation to the dorms is super important, as we’re really close. I would also say our happy hours. We really try to make them around days relevant to students, not us.
How does Fuzzy’s brand itself so well to college students?
We do pay for sponsorship through CSU athletics. That creates a relationship where we are able to use the logo, and affiliation with sports as much as we please. This is almost a $10,000 per year sponsorship, but it is so important to us to be connected to the CSU community and be a part of athletic games. After four years of being here, the affiliations have only grown deeper and deeper.
So what is it about CSU that Fuzzy’s LOVES?
That for us would be the legacy that we now have with students after four years. The freshmen who came here when we first opened are now seniors, and they are telling the new underclassmen about the fun times that they always have here.
We get increased business by doing fundraising with groups. When we reach out to business to do fundraising, we get a lot of new customers and that’s always exciting for us.
Why did Fuzzy’s choose this location?
Well, Fuzzy’s chose this exact location because of its closeness to the campus. Also because this side of town was less expensive four years ago so rent here was significantly less than Old Town. We knew to appeal to students, we had to be as close as possible to campus. This area was slowly growing and there wasn’t a lot of competition on this side of town, so we were able to snag it up for a very reasonable price.
What do students do to the atmosphere here?
As far as my staff, having CSU nearby allows me to employ a lot of CSU students. We love having their energy and it’s always fun having them come in with all of their friends. We appreciate student’s ability to have pride in the school. When they all come in in their gear it adds a lot of energy to the business. All the guests feel excited to be a part of college again and they feel like this is a place where they can bring their young kids who yell and scream because honestly, it all goes together. It really makes the age range a lot more broad.
How does Fuzzy’s give back to the community?
OOH! Fuzzy’s gives back to the community A LOT! We provide fundraising opportunites. So awesome. We have a $200 per month budget for community outreach and sponsorship. Fuzzy’s encourages franchises to embrace their community through donation, but this was more of a tactic we started out with to get our name out by supporting the locality. Now we hold onto it due to the rewarding relationships and opportunities. We have for four years now made it known to the community that we do sponsorship gifts like this. We do anything from donating gift cards or gift baskets to use during fundraisers or silent auctions.
We also really like to support the larger charities in town. We have been a supporter for Realities of Children for four years now. They do really great work in town. As well as RamStrength™, which is led by Michelle Lubick. RamStrength™ the only non-profit in town that donates to all types of cancer survivors, as opposed to one specific type. That’s been a really great organization that we actually found through CSU.
*RAMSTRENGTH™ has raised over $1,000,000 to help the community fight cancer.
What about company-wide?
No Kid Hungry campaign is a company wide effort that Fuzzy’s is doing. Each individual store is donating 25 cents per souvenir cup that they sold during the month of September. As far as this store, we have sold 1881 souvenir cups. At 25 cents per cup, that gives us a grand total of $470. My goal now will be a $500 donation from our store!
What do you think people don’t know about Fuzzy’s but should?
I think people don’t know how many of our ingredients are so fresh and local! Through Shamrock food supply we are able to get our produce through a lot of local farms as well as our beef. I feel that if people got an eye on our food preparation daily, they would be much more interested in the freshness of the food.
Anything else?
I also think people don’t know that here at Fuzzy’s we like to customize! So whether it’s a Ram Horn or the way you want your food made specifically that is not on the menu, we are more than willing to accommodate ANY changes. Actually, by being so accommodating we got a place on a vegetarian website. Someone had written a message that they enjoyed their experience at this location and that we had a lot of vegetarian options. So then we were able to expand into that community and let them know that we really do have SO many gluten-free and vegetarian options. Some places aren’t able to do that because of corporate recipes, but we have that freedom here and it’s awesome. I’m super proud of that.
Okay, most important thing! What’s your favorite thing on the menu?
Easy! Grilled shrimp quesadilla!
