2:33 PM. The bell rings. Senior and school store manager Caitlyn Wong enters room 704 as students exit the classroom and heads for the door in the back left corner. Her keys jangle as she unlocks the door. She pushes up the metal shutters, and the warm light of the store illuminates the faces of the students eagerly waiting to buy their snacks and drinks. The school store is now open for business.
The school store has existed since 1959, long before it became integrated with DECA. In addition to financially supporting the DECA program, the school store serves two other important purposes: funding school-wide events and developing students’ soft skills. “[The store] primarily [generates] funds for DECA, but if there are school-wide events taking place, like charities, we always contribute.” DECA and school store advisor Mr. Rick Vine said. “We’re not trying to make a [big] profit, so we don’t charge prices like a Walmart or 7-Eleven.”
Beyond generating funds for the business clubs and school events, the school store is also a place for students to learn and apply soft skills, or transferable skills, and of course, serve drinks and snacks to hungry students before and after school.
The daily school store life of Wong and her coworkers is very simple: open shop, take orders from students, and play card games during the slow times. This typical routine is when these students learn customer handling skills, such as speaking with other students, both kindly and sternly. “Last year, we had a lot of people hogging the middle—which makes it hard for others to see and come up to purchase the products—and getting loud, which gets us noise complaints from teachers holding extra help nearby,” Wong said. Through experience, students working at the school store learn how to interact with good-natured customers and maintain a calm atmosphere around the store, ensuring that the 700s hallway doesn’t become too loud during the morning or after school. And while the store sometimes gets rowdy, Mr. Vine said, “The school store’s never been run better than the teams that we’ve had there in the past couple of years,” showing the improvement the students have made to the store in recent years.
This daily routine is sometimes disrupted by a special day when the store shelves start running low: inventory day. After Mr. Vine purchases both bestsellers and new items suggested by students (the ramen was a student’s idea!), he leaves the goods in the back, ready for Wong and her coworkers to restock the shelves. “[On restocking days] at 2:30, I go in the back and act like a five-year-old on Christmas morning, unpacking everything,” Wong said.
After the new stock has been packed out—the fridge neatly lined with Snapples, Gatorades, and waters, and the industrial shelves filled with boxes of tonkatsu ramen and assortment of Cape Cod chips—Wong picks up the receipt left by Mr. Vine to calculate the prices. “Prices are really simple,” she said. “I go over unit cost and how much we purchased for each item, then set the item at a reasonable price.” Student workers then memorize the prices and inform the customers with each order. Though prices are typically stable, this system allows prices to adjust and sales to occur when a good isn’t selling well. Sometimes the Lays chips will be 50% off, or Gushers will be “buy one, get one free.” It all depends on what’s selling and what’s not. “The students drive the train as far as I’m concerned, and I just help them get to where they want to go,” Mr. Vine said
If a student is interested in getting behind the counter, they simply need to speak with either Wong or Mr. Vine. A simple process is then followed to ensure that the student is dedicated and trustworthy. “First, you have to interview with me,” Wong said. “If you pass the interview, then you have to go through a one-week test period. Then, you’re hired!” While simple, this process ensures that the student is interested and committed—two traits necessary to keep the store running both in the morning and the afternoon.
“It is a job, at the end of the day.” Mr. Vine said. “Some students are into it and they take it seriously, and others come for a day or two, and then we never see them again. We really try to vet students before we let them behind the register and start handling the proceeds because it’s not just being in a club or activity. There’s a lot of real world items that take place.”
However, being a part of the school store is more than just working behind the counter and developing new skills. According to Wong, “Working at the store has given me a second home: I have a great community filled with my fellow employees and store regulars, and I have a nice cozy space to rest at the end of a long school day. I love opening up every afternoon and playing some card games with my friends.”
