In an effort to increase its customer base, the Carlmont Student Store implemented changes by adding new snacks and Apple Pay.
The store, located in the quad, is run by parent volunteers. Open during lunch and after school, it sells a variety of snacks available for students to purchase.
Beginning on March 18, the Carlmont Parent-Teacher-Student-Associaton (PTSA) worked to enhance the Student Store by adding various new items, like Pop-Tarts, Smartfood popcorn, and Fairlife protein shakes, to their menu.
“We’ve been discussing these changes for quite some time now,” said Gabrielle Kim, a volunteer at the student store and PTSA member.
The PTSA made the decision in an effort to increase revenue, as well as to add more variety to its previous selection of snacks.
Aside from lunch and after school, the Student Store offers additional snacks during field sports event, like track and field meets and lacrosse games. Because the events are outside of school hours, there are less regulations to follow, allowing for a wider variety of options. Although it varies, these often include candies, donuts, sodas, crackers, and instant ramen.
“I love the snack options they have at track meets,” said Emerson Elyse Barajas, a runner on the track and field team. “I always buy something, like soda or donuts when they have them.”
Furthermore, diverging from a previous cash-only business model, the store has slowly began to introduce Apply Pay as a payment method. Starting on March 25, the store began using Apple Pay exclusively after school, intended to be a temporary trial run to test its success. Despite receiving requests in years past for non-cash payment methods, the PTSA avoided its implementation.
The main concern with Apple Pay was cost—besides having to purchase card readers that cost $200 each, Apple Pay charges vendors a fee between 1.5% and 3.5% of the total price per transaction. In order to minimize revenue loss, the Student Store requires a minimum purchase of $1.50 with Apple Pay. Besides cost concerns, the PTSA also needed to teach its volunteers how to use the new system.
“Because of all the adaptations, I think that people were kind of hesitant. And so all of this took a while to decide,” Kim said.
However, the decision proved to be beneficial to the success of the store. According to Kim, the volunteers were shocked at how many cashless students purchased with Apple Pay. Because of the positive outcome, the PTSA plans to make Apple Pay permanent at the snack shack after spring break.
To the advantage of the Student Store, new additions and payment options have greatly helped in increasing sales.
“When I saw that they started selling Pop-Tarts, I got really excited. I’ve bought them twice this week, as well as the mango fruit cups,” said sophomore Yailin Drumm. “I’m also really glad they started accepting Apple Pay because I never have cash on me,” Drumm said.
With the additional funds obtained by the student store, the PTSA will have more money to put towards funding their programs, such as Parent Education series, senior scholarships, and Associated Student Body (ASB)-sponsored events for students, such as assemblies, field trips, and dances.
“We’ve felt like we’ve had the same items for a long time, and we want to change it up a little bit and attract some more customers,” Kim said.
