Moorhead High School’s logo emblazons all the merchandise in the new Spuddy’s Store at the MHS Career Academy. Trish Roningen’s business students staff it as part of their introduction to the world of retail. (Photo/Nancy Hanson)
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
When Spuddy’s Store opened Monday on the main floor of the Moorhead High School Career Academy, it quickly seized the top spot as the black-and-orangiest shopping destination in town.
From the merchandise to the students who staff the shop in the commons area of the Moorhead High Career Academy, the new enterprise is all-Spud. Shelves are racks are stacked with every conceivable kind of Spud wear – from T shirts to sweatshirts to ball caps to lanyards, decals, lap blankets and more, the ubiquitous potato is everywhere.
Spuddy’s Store is much more than an explosion of MHS pride, explains business teacher Trish Roningen, whose School Store I class operates the brand-new venture. “It’s an introduction to the whole world of bricks-and-mortar retail,” she says. “So many students today order almost everything online; if they shop in stores at all, they know it only from the customer side.
“We want them to get a real sense of how a business like this is run – what goes on behind the scenes, from ordering and stocking to pricing and customer relations.” She adds, “From what I’ve seen, fewer young people have working experience than they did in years gone by.” She suggests that a wider array of school activities and social outlets may be the reason.
Regardless, it’s a world that many of her 28 students per quarter seem to find fascinating and, perhaps, a little overwhelming. Teams of three rotate through the shop during the hour before they come to Trish’s classroom, then study the basics of running a business. Trish leads them through a long list of topics, emphasizing the basics of customer relations. “They’re learning to deal with people,” she says, “not only customers, but fellow employees they may not know and some they may not like. That’s all part of what it’s like to have a job – something they may not have experienced before.”
They’ve been getting a firsthand glimpse of the art of working with customers lately, courtesy of their teacher. “I’ve been the difficult customer,” Trish confesses with a smile. “They’ve had to deal with me, raising issues and complaints about quality, prices and trying to return items bought a year ago. It’s all about human relations. That’s especially hard for teens today. Their lives are so based on their technology. They don’t deal with people-to-people relations much anymore.”
If the merchandise Spuddy’s Store is selling looks a bit familiar, there’s a reason. The Career Academy has partnered with Scheels All Sports to design the store.
Trish credits the Scheels staff for putting their expertise to work to get the school store going. “I’ve never worked in retail myself,” admits the educator, a 24-year veteran of the classroom. “Our partners at Scheels came in and did their thing from start to finish. I can’t even explain how valuable their help has been. We couldn’t have done this without them.”
The Scheels crew, she says, advised her on every aspect of putting together Spuddy’s Store. “They said, ‘Here’s what you need, here are the companies we order from, here’s where you can get shelves and racks and manikins,” she says. “These people open new stores all the time and know exactly how to do it.” Buyers advised on how to order the vast array of Spud-emblazoned gear, using vendors who manufacture merchandise for the 31 Scheels All Sports stores now in 13 states. Scheels marketing experts laid out the shop and advised on showing the merch off to best advantage, from three life-sized manikins to the graphics on the walls. Point-of-sale specialists helped set up the computer-driven sales system.
“It was exciting to see it all take shape just last week,” Trish reports. “We went from bare walls in an empty space on Monday to a store that’s ready to go by Friday. It was more than I could imagine.”
For now, Spuddy’s Store is open only from 8 to 9 a.m. Its customers are limited to students, teachers and staff, since the public doesn’t have regular access to the Career Academy due to safety factors. Parents and other will get their first chance to browse and buy on Tuesday, April 25, during teacher conferences. Trish says other events will be scheduled in the future.
The store has been planned for the academy’s business and entrepreneurship pathway from the beginning. A second store will be added in the new high school when construction is complete – one that will be open during sporting events, opening the door to more sales to the public. Trish says an online component is also part of the long-term vision.
Like any business, Spuddy’s Store is intended to turn a profit. In the long run, Trish says, that revenue can be channeled to support students’ participation in the MHS chapter of Business Professionals of America, a fledgling organization begun just this year. Its initial membership is just eight. She expects it to grow much larger next year, when this year’s three sections of School Store I will double to six, giving 168 teens a taste of selling their school colors.
