School Store
We all learn from real-life, practical experience. Teach the students skills that will be invaluable in the years ahead and fundraise at the same time by opening a school store that's run by the students. With teacher or parent volunteer assistance they will learn basic accounting, finance, management, and marketing.
LOCATION & HOURS OF OPERATION
Designate a room or area in the school to be the School Store. This should be a visible area to make it accessible to students, parents, and visitors. Open the store during school lunch, parent conferences, school performances, sports activities, pancake breakfasts, craft/vendor sales, book fairs, or any other event that drives traffic to your school.
MARKETING
Let the students assist in the store design and layout. Have them set up displays, make signs, post product advertisements and order forms to the school's website, and learn about product marketing. Sell products that appeal to the students, families, and school staff:
- School logo items - clothing, hats, umbrellas, magnets, school mascot, mugs
- School supplies - pens, pencils, notebooks, binders, calculators, rulers, art boxes
- Coffee - sell coffee to school staff and parents every morning
- Snacks - cookies, chips, fruit roll-ups, oranges, bananas
- Used Books - run a Book Sale from the store with donated books
- Crafts made by students - collaborate with the art teacher to make special class projects (1 per class) - painted vases, mosaic framed mirror or picture frame, sets of illustrated note cards. Students can encourage parents to purchase items they worked on. A tip to making this successful is to have as many students as possible work on the project. Parents will purchase an item their child took part in making. See our Simple Craft Ideas.
Involve the students in the purchase and sale of items. They will learn to make decisions on which vendors to purchase from, what types of items will sell, what mark-up to apply to the price, how to make change, how to accept a check, and how to re-invest the profits. They will also learn about customer service.
Shop at Office Depot for the store supplies and earn credits for your school. Office Depot supports schools and communities through their 5% Back to Schools program. This program gives you an opportunity to help local schools receive free credits for free supplies when you shop at the Office Depot for student school supplies.
MANAGEMENT
Let the students put together the hours of operation schedule at the beginning of each month based on what school events are upcoming. The students will need to track scheduled PTO events (pancake breakfast, craft/vendor sales, book fairs), school performances, events, community events (voting day), and teacher events (parent conferences). Also, let them arrange the schedule of students to work the store.
ACCOUNTING & FINANCE
The students will learn all about profits & loss. They will learn to deal with cash & check sales. Teach them about keeping accurate bookkeeping records.
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PTO Ideas has provided you with ideas for planning an event. This information should not be used as a legal reference and may not be all-inclusive. We suggest consulting with the head of your school or any other essential professional.
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