A.S. Council’s plans for an on-campus store selling Sun God and Greek merchandise have been pushed back to Winter Quarter due to planning difficulties.
Turning the vision of the store, Triton Outfitters, into a reality was set in motion by former All-Campus Senator Tobias Haglund, and projected to debut in January 2010, but was pushed back until it was ratified unanimously to continue for this year at the last A.S. meeting of the year.
The A.S. Council expected to have all of the necessary details ironed out by the end of summer, but it will now take the rest of Fall Quarter to reach completion because planning and implementing did not occur as quickly as presumed.
The store, named Triton Outfitters, will sell the merchandise — such as T-shirts, Greek apparel and letters — of any student-registered organization, as well as promotional products like mugs, lanyards and hoodies.
Council plans for Triton Outfitters to be open year-round and occupy the space in the west wing of the second floor of University Centers, which housed the Sun God store this past May.
Brian McEuen, Associate Vice President of Enterprise Operations, said the store will offer an alternative to the UCSD Bookstore, which currently sells only UCSD-branded merchandise.
However, he aid that key factors — such as the percentage of profit Triton Outfitters will retain, or how to manage all the different organizations — have not yet been determined.
In addition, no floor plan has been finalized. Several designs discussed with Vice President of Finance and Resources Andrew Ang and former A.S. president Utsav Gupta have been proposed but none have been selected because the university has not yet agreed to an A.S. Council-approved contract with designers to construct in the space. The cost of designs and contractors has not been determined.
In addition, the council has not finished the financial planning for the store. Ang said that estimates for monthly expenses such as rent, production and upkeep are still inconclusive because all expenditures have not been calculated.
“The amount is still in the works and should be available in the coming weeks when more of the finances and plans are settled,” Ang said. “A.S. [Council] has allocated a total of $204,000 to the store last quarter — in full total. The initial amount will go to the initial costs that are needed to be covered to start up the store: merchandise, employee pay, constructing the physical store and other costs that may come about as we create the store, financially and physically.”
But McEuen said he is hopeful that the store construction will begin once council picks a specific designer to blueprint the space, decides which suppliers the merchandise will come from and hires managers to run the store.
Over the summer we worked diligently on figuring out a prospective location, layout and start-up costs,” McEuen said. “Triton Outfitters is still in agreement with University Centers and plans to meet with A.S. [Council] soon.”
Triton Outfitters will not be allocated additional funds after start-up, until the store begins to pay off its initial capital — ideally, within a year.
“The store is going to sustain itself,” McEuen said. “We made a profit–loss statement and the store will be able to function without money from the A.S. budget on a continual basis, with the exception of starting costs. We anticipate student organizations will want to use the store to promote and sell their merchandise.”
