Open For Business
By FRANKLIN LY
As students at Manteca High approach the market at the end of the hallways, water and chips fly off the shelves, students scurry through the doors. They come in small groups, looking around at the merchandise and snacks, contemplating what to buy. A student with a black Adidas backpack and white mask purchases water, handing the cashier – a fellow student – a dollar to complete the transaction.
The Jeff Gaines Buffalo Corner, Manteca High’s student store, provides students with work experience, giving both the buyer and seller an understanding of how retail and marketing work in the real world … the world outside of campus.
“Student store has helped me create many communication skills, social skills. It also helped me with an understanding of retail, and finance,” said Andrew Rodriguez, a runner for Debbie Hill’s student store classroom. A runner shuttles food back and forth from the cafeteria.
Hill’s student store class caters to students who are interested in a career in retail and marketing.
“Student store is a class that gives students an opportunity to learn hands on of accounting to merchandising to everyday skills that they’re going to need for the public,” Hill said.
Proceeds from the store have helped the school with equipment, including tables and umbrellas, among other items. Manteca High School is the only school in the Manteca Unified School District that operates student store five days a week, Hill said.
The store is open before and after school, as well as during lunch.
“Our student store is the only store in our district that operates in this manner everyday,” she said.
Manteca High’s Justin Lee and Bryan Lopez contributed to this article.
