The Griff's Promising Return
Photo Credit: Adelaide Guan
New school, new store! After a four-year hiatus, Eric Hamber’s student store, the Griff, is open again, selling drinks and snacks. But is it here to stay? The Nest sat down with Griff president Renee Kwok (11) to get the behind-the-scenes on the reimagined student store.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q&As About The Griff
Q: How many days a week will the Griff be in business?
A: “The Griff plans to sell apparel and food products that we have left in store sometime in the middle or end of this month. We are unsure of the exact prices of these products, but we hope to sell hoodies, sweatshirts, caps, and t-shirts for around $30-40.”
Q: What has it been like working in the new storefront space in the new school?
A: “There is a lot of new equipment […] but sometimes, some things are kind of broken, like we had problems with our sink, and our popcorn machine also broke, so we’re hoping that we can purchase the new one with the profits we made throughout the first semester.
Q: How is the Griff structured?
A: “Currently, we don’t have a lot of members, but some of us have returned from last year [...] our business teachers talked to some of us, so we came together as a team, and then with Ms. D. Stefanek (Business Education)'s Marketing 10 class, we have been sort of supervising them, and then they were doing their own sales for a day, and then they would go back and revise [based] on their experience and they came back again.”
Q: What is your best-selling snack or drink?
A: “I would say the ice sparkling drinks, but we noticed during the Midtown Showdown that our Peace Tea actually sells really well.”
Q: Are there any restrictions on different foods that are impacting what you can and cannot sell?
A: “There are some sugar and fat restrictions, so we had things like yogurt bars, fruit gummies, and goldfish, and we tried really hard to just find these products that we think the students and maybe teachers would be interested in while meeting the nutrition-related requirements.”
Q: Why was the Griff reopened this year rather than other years, and what were the first few weeks of reopening the Griff like?
A: “So last year we did have plans to reopen, but I think we ran into a lot of obstacles with looking for suppliers. For example, the general idea then was to make apparel that was to commemorate the old campus. But now that we're here, we scrapped the apparel idea. Now that we have Ms. Stefanek's Marketing 10 students, we’ve got a really clear direction that we want to work toward. For the first few weeks, we had a lot of meetings, and everybody was scrambling to meet deadlines, but even without formal training for any of the members, I think we actually did quite well.”