College Bookstore Black “Thursday” Sale

Prior to the Thanksgiving break the college store opened its doors to students, faculty and parents to offer discounts on merchandise and reveal new items just in time for Christmas. Whilst the store presented a smooth facade and executed two smooth days of sales, unbeknown to anyone that a significant amount of planning and adaptation was made. Planning for this event began last year after the last Black Friday sales, ordering new merchandise and obtaining students opinions on what they wanted to see for this year’s sales. Shopping for this new merchandise occurred in September culminating in twenty-four boxes of merchandise to be inventoried, priced and labelled. The produce for this new merchandise is provided by ‘College House’ and Jim Katz, this service does not charge freight, is cheaper and has good sales provided to the college. In addition to all this acquirement of merchandise, the shop had to be set up with the blocking out of windows and promoting the new merchandise in visible areas, requiring a significant number of hours from Mary Middaugh and her staff of student employees.

The sale was originally meant to be on the Thursday night, but due to inclement weather and the busy schedule of students on campus, the store switched times to Friday, Nov.16th 1-3pm and Saturday Nov. 17th 1-4pm. However, the Saturday sales did not involve discounts and was open to accommodate the VMT open house day. This change caused issues with the overall process and presentation of the day. This is evidenced with the absence of condiments, such as cookies, as there was not enough people to warrant the distribution of cookies and other candy. Moreover, the efficiency of the day was compromised as there was only a cash only line; therefore, people had to wait longer in the store and in queues. However, in terms of sales the days were a success, with a total number of 64 students/staff/faculty that were served, with over 195 items purchased. The top three items sold were: the comfort distressed long sleeve T-shirts, old school vintage sweatshirts and the heather navy long sleeve shirt with Phoenix down the sleeve. The college store has some great options and merchandise for all, so it is well worth it to see what it has to offer.