The BRICS Have Fallen

Every Wednesday and Friday, the AISG community anticipates the opening of BRICS café, a café made by the Business Club. The café sells everything from instant ramen to soda and is a favorite among many AISG students. However, recently, it was found that students have taken many items from the BRICS café inventory without paying for them, resulting in the temporary closure of the BRICS café.

This situation was brought to Ms. Partee’s, the leader of the Business Club, attention during the IB work days. However, Stanley W, an executive in the Business Club, says that “[he] isn’t surprised as this has happened constantly before, but never as badly and it was controllable.” When Stanley opened the refrigerator, he found there was “barely a quarter of what it was on Friday, with less than 100 RMB received that day.” He speculates that it got worse because “the stock [is] now outside in the locker,” so it is easier for people to just take things without paying. Ms. Partee feels upset about the fact that students she generally thinks highly of and treats with respect would “brazenly disrespect [her],” and those who know anything about Ms. Partee know that she doesn’t get angry easily.

However, neither Ms. Partee nor Stanley W. want to find out who committed this act as they don’t feel good pointing fingers at people that they know—some friends, or some students that were regarded highly—and accusing them of committing a crime. Ms. Partee wants to “still be able to treat all [her] students fairly, and finding out who did it will definitely change how [she] views the student.”

Ms. Partee is planning to “focus on fixing the culture that allowed people to think that [it] was okay to begin with.” It became clear to Ms. Partee that “it wasn’t enough to just tell the members to lock up inventory and keep track of things.” She plans to become stricter with the members so they won’t “abuse the perks and allow their friends to purchase when the café wasn’t open,” and wants to bring back the original purpose of Business Club, which “is to learn about businesses since we don’t have a class for that.” It is not known how long it will take before BRICS Café is open again; however, “changes in practices and company culture have to change before that happens, we will learn some true business skills before it’s all over with.”