THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701220139
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover story
SOURCE: BY SUSAN W. SMITH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 125 lines
THE METAL CURTAIN rolls up, the customers step forward and - CHA-CHING!
Another day at the mall. Wrong. It's just another busy shopping day at the Oscar F. Smith High School Store.
Antwoine Anderson, 17, wants a handful of peppermints. Lavar Griffen, 17, considers purchasing a teddy bear. Loretta Jefferies, a school security officer, mulls over a gift for her daughter's birthday.
The store stocks balloons, stuffed animals, cookbooks, greeting cards and mints for students and staff who need a quick gift or fresh breath.
Oscar Smith is the only Chesapeake school with a gift shop. Although shoppers can buy such emergency supplies as paper and pencils, the line usually forms to check out the jewelry, picture frames and T-shirts. Stuffed animals and Lifesaver mints are the most popular purchases.
Like any gift shop, Christmastime, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are big.
The store opened last year as a joint venture between the school's marketing department and the special education vocational classes.
Students from both departments are involved in all aspects of the store operations: from picking merchandise to manning the cash registers, said Kelly M. Kitchens, the marketing teacher and store manager.
In Kathy L. Chambers' special education classes, the students learn basic job responsibilities and skills in the classroom. When a student has progressed, Chambers recommends work in the school store for several shifts a week to put the lessons into practice.
The purpose of the program is for the students to learn marketable skills so when they graduate from high school they will be employable, Chambers said.
As junior and seniors in the marketing program, students study financial planning, loss prevention, advertising and management. As part of the program requirements, they must also work about 360 hours in a school year at a paying job in the community.
``The school store gives all the student workers a taste of job reality before they enter the outside work force,'' Kitchens said.
``Plus when they fill out job applications, they can check `experience,' '' Chambers added.
And the students have been busy getting experience. Since September, sales have totaled almost $7,700. The profit will be used to restock the store and to buy additional equipment such as another cash register or maybe a laser printer. Other school groups, like the athletic department and the ROTC program, which offer consignment items, will get their share of the earnings. The remaining money will go into the general school fund.
``The store is primarily a hands-on, retail operation, learning experience for student workers,'' Kitchens said. ``But it doesn't hurt that we also provide convenient shopping at a fair price for those on campus and a little income for the school.''
The store, located in the cafeteria area, is opened before school and during the activity period at the end of each lunch session.
``In retail, store location is important,'' Kitchens said. ``And we have a great location because every day about 400 students and faculty are in the cafeteria at each lunch time. We have a captive market.''
The student workers and the marketing classes help select the stock. They study the store budget, pore over catalogs and canvass their friends for suggestions.
The staff and faculty also are not shy about making their requests. Recently, Sydney Savoy, the wrestling coach, and Charles Stukes, an administrator, nixed the wild cherry and peppermint drops and put in a request for their favorite chocolate mints.
Because the school participates in a federally subsidized lunch program, individual candy and snack food cannot be sold. But boxes of candy can be sold as gift items.
New inventory and special sales are touted during the morning announcements. On a average day, the student merchants sell about $100 in merchandise.
Like all good retailers, the students and their advisers prepare in advance for seasonal or special occasion treats. Before the Christmas holidays, the store offered a variety of stocking-stuffer gifts. Now, they are preparing for Valentine's Day. This year, an extra large order was placed for candy, heart-shaped boxes, stuffed animals and flowers. Last year, there were more customers than goodies. Mother's Day will be the next busy holiday.
``We anticipate doing more than $800 in business during Valentine week,'' Kitchens said. ``And we might come close to that amount for Mother's Day.''
Shanita Abrams, 16, and Tiffaney Jones, 16, punched their cards in the time clock and took their place at the counter.
Monique Johnson, 15, one of the first customers, checked out the school mugs and asked about a small teddy bear.
``He's cute, but that's too much money,'' Johnson said when Jones told her it cost $7.50.
For the next 20 minutes, Abrams and Jones sold dozens of mints, carefully counted change and patiently waited on the browsers and the buyers.
The student shoppers checked out the balloons for all occasions at $1.50 each and pondered the stuffed animals from $2.50 to $22.50. There were no buyers for the $32 shirts with the school's tiger paw logo or the $2 key chains. But several shoppers needed Chapstick, tissues or cough drops.
There also was no call for the reeds, cork grease and valve oil for band instruments in need of a quick repair.
Loretta Jeffries, the security officer, waited among the students for her turn to ask about a Dalmatian puppet for her daughter's birthday.
``It's $16.50 here, and the same puppet is $25 at the mall,'' Kitchens said as she used the puppet as an example of how overhead can affect the sales price. ``Because we don't have many expenses, we can sometimes even beat mall prices.''
Jeffries said she would think about the puppet, while Jones and Abrams nodded that they understood the quick lesson in overhead expenses.
When it was time to close, Kitchens lowered the curtain as the girls tidied the shelves and secured the cash register for the next shift.
``Whether they are academic or special-needs students, an important part of this experience is inter-acting with others, practicing job skills and improving self-confidence, which most teens need,'' Chambers said. ``When they show up for work, they're all Oscar Smith Store employees getting a taste of the working life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including color cover by MORT FRYMAN
Marketing teacher Kelly M. Kitchens rolls up the metal curtain at
the student store. From there, the student sales staff takes over.
Oscar Smith High School Store employees - Shanita Abrams, left,
Aisha Watson, Melainda Lucas, Tiffaney Jones, and teacher Kelly
Kitchens - wait for customers as the store opens.
Special-education teacher Kathy L. Chambers helps Aisha Watson at
the cash register. Students in her class learn basic job
responsibilities, then test them out in the store.