Setting Up a Student Store at Your School

One of the ways that your school or school group (like PTA, PTO or Booster Club) can earn money is by having a student store. A student store (also known as spirit store) is a table or room that is open one day (or more) out of the week and students can bring money and buy stuff. The proceeds of course, go to the school.

A student store can be a lot of work but it is certainly doable and can be rewarding for both the cause you are raising money for and the students.

I help assist with the student store at our school with another Booster Club member who started the store and it is nice to see the excitements on kids faces when they see what products we have. Plus it helps us get funds for several programs at our school which is always a plus.

This article will give you a few tips on how to get your store started, assuming that you've already gotten principal approval to open a store.

#1: Buying Items for the Store

So you're going to start a store... great! Now you need to decide where you're going to buy your items from and what you're going to sell. Also you need to decide if you're going to sell things that are more for educational use (pencils, erasers) or for fun (little games, etc).

One of the best places to buy items online is Geddes.com. Geddes is a site that sells items for the one purpose of starting a student store. You can also see if your school can set up an account with them and if you're accepted, your school can get items in advance and then pay thirty days later. This helps if you don't have a lot of cash to work with and hopefully you'll have earned enough with your student store to pay what you spent from Geddes. You can browse through their website but you can also request a catalog. Be careful to note if there are reviews on products, you don't want to get something to sell that has a lot of bad reviews. Some of our most popular items that sell at our student store from Geddes? Video game erasers (we sell them for $1 each), scented donut erasers (we sell them for .40 cents each) and mini mechanical pencils (we sell them for .50 cents each). Geddes has a suggested price on what you can sell items for but you can charge more or less as to how you see fit. Visit Geddes at this link.

Another website to consider is The Oriental Trading Company . The Oriental Trading Company is chockfull of items that kids would love. Be sure to visit their clearance section to see if you can get some great deals for your school.

If you want to buy items in person, visit a local dollar or .99 cent store. They have items that can be sold at a student store. Also the day after a holiday (Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Easter) go to the store when everything is 50% off and buy pencils and fun items for the following year. You may even find stuff that you can use for your current school year that isn't too holiday themed.

#2: Volunteers

A student store can not run without volunteers... You will definitely need adult volunteers but depending on how old the kids are at your school, you can even ask for youth assistance (they should at least be in 6^th grade and older). Set up volunteers in advance so that you always have someone on hand to work the store.

#3: Prices

A successful student store has items that range from very low to a moderate price. For example, our student store has stuff for .5 cents and up. That allows kids who don't have that much money to be able to at least get something. You don't want kids feeling left out. Most kids can come up with at least a nickel. If a nickel sounds too low, don't worry... It adds up. We get so much change at our student store that we have to use several coin rolls to get it all together.

#4: Setting Up

Where are you going to set up at? A lot of school's don't have the luxury of having a room that is only for their student store (if you do, congrats!) so you can either borrow a room one day a week OR do what my school does. We set up a table that is close to the playground and put a festive tablecloth on it and then we set up all of our items in containers. It's neat and it does the job. Kids spot our table and come running.

#5: No Exchange or Return Policy

No exchange or returns? Sounds harsh doesn't it. Now if something ends up broken that is clearly not the child's fault, then by all means, let them return it. We did not have this policy at first at our school and kids would hold up the line when they ran to exchange something or try to return it for their money. And some kids will return things over...and over...and over again. It is easier all the way around if you make sure that you have a ALL SALES FINAL sign (unless it breaks due to the item being shoddy and not the child breaking it). Kids have to learn that it is just a part of life, that you can't return everything.

#6: Have Student Store Open at Special Events

Don't just have the student store open at the school for regular days, have it open at special events as well like Back to School Night, etc. Parents may want to buy things for their kids or the kids may be able to talk their parents into buying something for them. Either way, that means more money for your school.