Snack Shack Review

Every Wednesday and Friday, students line up to buy snacks in front of Ms. Partee’s classroom. The Snack Shack, previously known as the BRICS Cafe, is Business Club’s student-led “store” which provides snacks such as chips, beverages, and cup noodles, to high school students. This club decided to “revamp” their Snack Shack and have implemented new ways of selling their goods.

I interviewed Ms. Partee, the teacher supervisor of the Business Club, and asked her a few questions regarding how the Business Club has changed. The most notable difference in the way the club has changed is its name. Many people still call the Snack Shack by its old name, the BRICS Cafe, because it has been around for a long time. When I asked Ms. Partee why the BRICS Cafe was renamed, she said, “sometimes it’s necessary to rebrand” and “start with a new face.”

Last year, during one of the IB Workshop days, many goods from the Business Club’s BRICS Cafe were stolen from Ms. Partee’s room. When I interviewed the coordinator of Business Club, Bonny C., she said that the incident occurred “due to poor business management” of members of the club. Students also started buying goods on other days of the week, rather than just on Wednesdays and Fridays. Because of this, the club wanted to send a message to our community that the Snack Shack is changing, that it was necessary to “emphasize that the things we were doing before will not happen again.”

If you haven’t noticed how the Snack Shack has improved, that is because “most of the changes aren’t very forward-facing, so the average customer may not actually see the things we’re doing differently, but as far as operations go, I have seen a vast improvement.” What has improved is how the Snack Shack has “changed its way of storing inventories and running meetings,” specifically with “new methods of locking up inventory to ensure that everything is secured.” These stricter rules mean that students are no longer able to buy goods any day of the week, but rather only on the days the Snack Shack is actually open. Furthermore, the inventory has “improved greatly compared to what it was like before,” so there are more options and they rarely run out of stock of popular items. The marketing team is also “working hard on redesigning the space and promoting our products through better methods.”

Not only have they successfully prevented the problem of theft, the executive team now “runs the club in a different way.” Business Club itself has found new ways to improve their Snack Shack, such as through “guest speakers who are coming in to teach us new management methods.” Business Club believes that the key thing was that “we really needed to send a message of change and not doing the same things that we’re comfortable with doing.” With guidance and tips from more seasoned individuals, the club is able to apply what they learn to provide an opportunity for students at AISG to buy snacks that are not sold in the Cafe or Cafeteria.

When I asked Ms. Partee if there was anything she’d like to add, she enthusiastically said, “we’re open Wednesdays after school and Fridays at lunch!” Make sure you support our community and Business Club by stopping by to buy some of your favorite snacks!