On Aug. 14, 2020, Pony Express Burritos announced their new location on campus at West Texas A&M University. They have been fully functioning in the Jack B. Kelley Student Center since the start of the semester. This is a slight change since the past semester as Sharky’s Burrito Company occupied that space in the spring. Since going online in March, Sharky’s has retracted their business in Canyon.

Mike Berry, retail brand manager for Aramark food services, reached out to Pony Express Burritos to see if they would like to extend their business and add a new location on campus. Once the offer was accepted, it was time to get to work.

“It was a very smooth transition. By bringing in a new brand, but still being such an equitable offer, when it came to moving into the building, it was quite easy to do. It was really a great fit. I know that they started off a little short-handed and worked very, very hard for a successful opening. It’s great to see that they have some wonderful student workers that have joined their staff. The offering that they have is a fantastic quality and their hospitality is great,” Berry said.

Owner of Pony Express Burritos, Noe Trejo, said that he was surprised by the outreach from WTAMU.

“When I was first told by my wife that WT had reached out to us, I was kind of surprised. To be honest, I really didn’t want to take the task on. I wanted to take a little bit of a load off of myself and my personal life. I was excited at the same time even though I didn’t initially think that this was what I wanted to do. It was a big step,” Trejo said.

What really sold Trejo on the idea of extending his business was WTAMU as a university and its facilities.

“WT holds its own compared to D1 schools, and it’s one of the safest campuses in the nation which is impressive, and that includes [Covid-19],” Trejo said.

Business-wise, Trejo has been very pleased at how this offer has gone for both of his Pony Express Burritos locations.

“I believe that this new location has complemented the original very well. The targets here in the JBK are more freshman and sophomores who are required to live on campus and I see that we don’t catch that audience over at the original location. We catch a lot of people from Canyon and more importantly more of the upper-classman that don’t have to live on campus. All they want to do is get off campus and go home. Pony is one of their stops, so I think the new location complements it very well,” Trejo said.

Students agree that this new location on campus is more accessible than traveling to the location on 4th Street. Along with that, it is helping get the word out about Pony Express Burritos. Cody Sandleback, physical education major and senior at WTAMU, spoke on the new attention Pony Express is getting.

“I think a lot of students didn’t know about Pony Express, because I just learned about it last year and I’ve been here four years. Now I think more students know and will go to the original location more,” Sandleback said.