Not a moment can be wasted when school store officers arrive in the morning. They rush to school at 8:20 a.m., set up the stand, stock up the products, and take a deep, thrilling breath. It is all for customers who come in the morning between 8:30 and 8:55 a.m., and it isn’t like any other time of the day—it is the golden 30 minutes that determines 100% of the sale.

“We only sell in the mornings,” DECA advisor Elizabeth Martin said. “We have limited time to sell and we want the most we can get.”

15 & Mane School Store is the official name of the school store. The school store is hoping for massive growth as over 20 products have been added since the start of the year. The profit is almost reaching $100 per day, which is almost twice as much as last year.

“We’re going to have those days where we’re going to have a crazy amount of sales and more customers coming every day,” school store officer Arhant Magdum said. “I’m a firm believer that our school store is going to continue to grow throughout the year.”

All of the profits from the school store goes to the school Distributive Education Clubs of America’s (DECA): funding for blazers, field trips and more. School store itself is part of the School Based Enterprise (SBE) program of DECA. It received the Gold Certification every year since its opening in 2015.

“The school store and SBE competition teaches students the value of a job: time commitment, learning data information, working with money, communication skills and leadership skills,” Martin said.

This year, the school store made a Google Form for students to recommend new products. The form is available to anyone in the school. The school store reviews the Google Form and takes the feedback into consideration when selecting new products.

 “If there’s any issue with the store, you can just fix them with a suggestion. So it’s a good addition,” customer Shaurya Singh said.

The school store introduced a variety of new products since the start of the year. Some of the new products include Nutella, Nerds Gummy Clusters, and popcorn. Breakfast products have been newly introduced as well, including donuts, Little Bites Muffins, and Pop Tarts.

“Our muffins, particularly, are chocolate chip muffins, and I believe that it’s a pretty delicious option to eat in the morning,” Magdum said. “Just come into the school store, grab some muffins if you haven’t yet had breakfast.”

The school store has gained more customers than last year. According to Magdum, more information was spread among students, and that was what made the school store so popular and so successful. There are many customers, and each of them like different aspects about the store.

“My favorite thing is that everything is really professional, and it seems like an actual store, and its things are cheaper than a normal store,” Singh said.

Customer Norah West has a different favorite aspect than Singh.

“My favorite thing about the school store is probably that they have a wide variety of things,” West said. “I was actually impressed because I figured they would have like three different types of candy but they had a lot of different things you could choose from.”

The school store is a work of many students, including school store officers, volunteers, committee members, and the advisor, and Magdum said he is excited to connect with all of them.

“Being able to communicate with [school store officer] Karan, with Ms. Martin, and other fellow officers… So being able to speak with them, being able to communicate and connect and engage with some of our customers, being able to get closer with some of our volunteers, that’s something I’m always looking forward to every day,” Magdum said. 

The school store does more than just providing services to students, fundraising for DECA, or teaching practical skills in businesses; it is part of the Reedy community, and a part of high school life.

“I think the store has been doing an incredible job connecting our school community,” Magdum said. “We’ve been able to gain more customers day by day compared to last year… and thus that’s been able to connect our school, our students, and our Reedy community, and we hope to do that as well in the future.”

A QR code displayed in the 15 & Mane School Store. The school store is receiving feedback and recommendation from customers through the QR code. The link of the website is bit.ly/45W5mSl