The freshly seated A.S. Council has its sights set on an A.S. student store, which it hopes to unveil in Spring Quarter 2010 before the Sun God Festival rush.
The store would carry A.S.- and Greek-related merchandise to promote council events like Bear Gardens, and give fraternities and sororities a convenient location to buy letters.
‘Students like to identify with icons that are a part of their student life and we are working to capitalize on that,’ A.S. Vice President of Finance and Resources Peter Benesch said. ‘With the proposed steady flow of income from Greek apparel, it is a very responsible way to lower student fees by capitalizing on student needs.’
According to Benesch, the bear mascots created by the A.S. Graphic Studio are wildly popular, and he said he believes apparel with the images would sell.
‘When we put up the bear posters on campus, they would be stolen in a couple hours,’ he said. ‘People thought they were so cute. That is also a consistent trend with the baby Sun Gods.’
In addition to improving A.S. Council visibility and promoting campus community, A.S. President Utsav Gupta said the enterprise would yield a profit for the council, reducing its dependence on the quarterly $47.82 activity fee that students pay.
Although the council has discussed an A.S. store for years, the idea gained momentum when councilmembers realized the Price Center expansion would provide space for the venture. Gupta said there is currently no business model for such an enterprise.
‘The business plan needs to be tackled, and made sure that it is profitable both fiscally and economically,’ Gupta said.
Benesch said he will draft this plan over the summer and begin talks with University Centers ‘mdash; which oversees Price Center’s retail space ‘mdash; at the beginning of Fall Quarter 2009. He estimated that the issue would not reach the council floor for discussion until three or four weeks into the quarter.
University Centers Advisory Board President Lana Blank said the best retail spot to support the Greek community is the location of the A.S. Programming Office’s current Sun God mini-store, between the box office and Jamba Juice.
‘It would make sense to have the A.S. store there because lots of Greek activity happens in the center of campus, but it is also an expensive place [in terms of rent] compared to most,’ Blank said.
The council will use retail statistics from the Sun God mini-store to determine which merchandise would sell best in the permanent enterprise, Benesch said.
‘We want to see how successful this merchandising is for Sun God and build off that success,’ he said. ‘With an A.S. store, we could see what’s working well and what’s in our business interest for the future.’
Benesch said he envisions keeping the enterprise student run, since paying for a professional managerial position would pose a huge financial burden.
Gupta added that if students remain in charge of business operations, there will be financial incentives for student customers to support the shop.
‘It’s a student-run enterprise, meaning that any profits generated by the store would go back to the student body in some way or form,’ he said. ‘It’s different from the Bookstore because the profit generated there isn’t seeing a return to the student body.’
Benesch said the council’s initial investment in shelving units, signage, merchandise and advertising for the store would cost roughly $150,000.
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