Planning for the Long-Awaited Reopening of Eric Hamber’s School Store

Katja Radovic-Jonsson

The Griff, Eric Hamber’s school store, was once a convenient hub for students to purchase snacks and Hamber merchandise. However, after COVID-19 and the passing of Eric Hamber’s beloved business teacher and school store’s sponsor, Ms. T. Hayes (Business Ed.), it has since been closed. This year, Marketing 11 and ECommerce 12 students are working to bring it back with the support of Ms. S. Schoenfelder (Business Ed.) and Mr. M. Albrecht (Business Ed.).

In the past, The Griff sold a variety of food, snacks, and drinks during lunch hours as an alternative to the cafeteria and vending machines. But this year, as student Priya Mann (12), explained, “We’re working on taking a bit of a different approach and not just bringing back exactly what there was years ago.”

Nicholas Mann (11) elaborated, “We’re still in the early stages, so a lot more to come. We’re doing surveys to see what [students] want us to sell, and how much [they] are willing to spend at the school store. In the past, students did want snacks, food, drinks, and all that. But right now might be different, and maybe they want an essentials store or even a clothing store.”

Both students emphasised that they did want to get The Griff running as soon as possible, and explained that there was only a rough timeline as of the interview, with a tentative date of re opening around mid to late November.

When asked what the Marketing 11 and E-Commerce 12 students are currently working on in the planning process, Priya Mann said, “Everyone meets together and shares their opinions.” Nicholas Mann added, “We still have quite a bit of work to do to get it up and running.” He proceeded to state that the Griff may open once or twice as a trial run to see what works best, be fore opening for longer periods of time.

Priya Mann concluded, “We’re hoping that it will allow students to get products that they don’t have access to right now. There is still a lot of talk and ideation about how exactly we want to be presented. Very little is actually finalised and a lot will be changing throughout the week, so we just have to wait and see how everything works together.” As Nicholas Mann said, “It’s kind of a community thing if you think about it.”