The home of Berkley High’s finest merchandise and most delicious treats: The Bear. During lunch students mindlessly head to the school store to buy a fun drink, chips, candy, or unique Berkley swag, but don’t think about all the hard work and small details that go into the store’s success. The class, Advanced Marketing, is in charge of running The Bear throughout the school year. Advanced Marketing students Leif Schoof, Alex Sims, and Salman Abdella shared their personal experiences, goals, and information surrounding The Bear.
With The Bear being the main destination to buy Berkley merch, the students need to put a lot of thought and effort into making and selling the merch. Schoof shared, “Students in Advanced Marketing design the merch using Canva or other digital tools.” The students use their creative minds while also keeping the “color and style trends” to appeal to Berkley students and staff. Schoof explained that “after getting approval from Mr. Hunt and the Product Development department, we work with Classic Wear LLC in Grosse Pointe to produce the items.” Abdella emphasized that “‘Classic Wear’ helps bring [the] designs to life!”
Once they produce the well-thought out clothing and accessory designs, they have to decide on prices. For both food and clothing items, Abdella highlighted that “the finance team works with Mr. Hunt [Advanced Marketing teacher] and Mr. Folsom [Oversees The Bear] to determine the price[s].” Adding on, Sims mentioned, “We mark it up 30% from the price that we purchase it at.” Though they still aim to earn a profit, Schoof said, “We [still] choose a price that stays affordable to students.”
The Bear staff put a lot of thought into their prices in order to get items to sell, but their prices alone won’t draw in customers; they must market their products. Abdella clearly stated, “Social media helps bring attention to new products and promotions.” Sims agreed and added, “We make TikToks to promote new exciting merch using the current trends.” On top of using trends on TikTok, Schoof finds it effective to make “student-featured posts” because “they generate the most impressions”. Schoof remarked, “Make sure to follow our Instagram (@theberkleybear) and our TikTok (@berkleybear25).”
Many schools have stores, but Berkley’s is unique in its own way. According to Schoof, The Bear “is run by students, and all profits go back into the marketing program and funding future merch,” which makes our school store special. Abdella added, “From coffee to snacks to jackets and hoodies, The Bear has a lot of items that appeal to everyone.” Both of these aspects make The Bear special which encourages students to keep shopping there. In addition to these aspects, Abdella shared, “Our friendly community…helps [students] feel connected to the school culture.” The friendly community is definitely a huge reason students come back, but Sims emphasized that “the Otis cookies” and all of “the deals and promotions” seem to be a huge reason students keep coming back. The Otis cookies are definitely a fan favorite at The Bear. Schoof highlighted the craze for the Otis cookies when he said, “Cookies are our top seller, followed by Dippin’ Dots.” Although these sweet treats are The Bear’s top seller, Schoof expressed, “We’ve also been working to promote our iced lattes and lemonades. We want students to know they don’t need to drive to Starbucks and spend $8+ for a good latte.” There are so many options for flavoring and the student-workers are happy to make modifications for their customers.
Now that we are deep into the holiday season, changes are made in The Bear. When it comes to the drink options, the flavors become more fitting for the season we are in. For example, now, in December, Schoof mentioned that there are “holiday-themed drinks like our sugar cookie lattes and our new hot chocolate bar”. The drinks aren’t the only change made. Abdella shared more about the general seasonal changes to The Bear, “Our promotions team helps decorate the bear and display case with themes during each season.” Narrowing in on this season he continued, “We’ll have a lot of winter theme decorations in The Bear and our display case which may include drawings, decor, winter themed music, and more!”
Through their hard work, it is evident that working The Bear requires significant effort and dedication. Schoof said that the hardest part of the job is “balancing all the different tasks”. Differently, Abdella shared, “When we get new inventory it can be difficult to count the stock and put it in our system especially if there are time constraints.” Sims said that the most difficult part for her last year were the days when she “could not go out to lunch with [her] friends” because she was working the bear. It can also get frustrating when the Berkley students don’t appreciate all the hard work The Bear employees put in. Schoof touched on this and said, “Most people don’t see the behind the scenes work like inventory, cleaning equipment, running reports, responding to online orders, and planning promos.” Despite these bumps in the road, Abdella believes that “the Bear has given [him] an opportunity to grow and gain new skills”.
The workers have not only developed business and customer service skills from working at The Bear, but they have also created amazing memories. Abdella mentioned, “My favorite part about working in The Bear is connecting with my team and customers.” Sims agreed, “I love the environment of The Bear.” Along with memories, Schoof’s “favorite part is watching an idea turn into real results”. Recently, the workers saw many ideas turn into results, Abdella said, “We just got $3 Icee, Airhead, & Slushpuppies slushies and $5 Welch’s frozen smoothie as part of our new snacks in The Bear!” Schoof added that they are looking forward to “adding Bloom energy drinks”.
On top of the new and exciting additions, the Advanced Marketing class has many goals for this upcoming year. Abdella highlighted one of their goals, “We plan to increase our revenue by 15% compared to last year.” Schoof mentioned another goal, “We want to increase student awareness of the Bear, get more students involved, and use that momentum to introduce new products and grow the store.” To add more exciting things Sims shared that they are trying “to create new drinks with the espresso machine”. These goals are exciting but nothing is more exciting than the major project the class has been working on which is “creating a separate Bear Cafe and merch storefront”. With not much to say about it, Schoof just said, “Stay stunned. Exciting things are on the way!”
The Bear employees put so much time, work, thought, and effort into all that they do while also making memories and learning life skills. The Bear is not something you should take for granted, as Berkley’s store is special compared to others. With the new holiday decorations, special drinks, trendy merch, and fantastic music, there is no better time to check out the Bear than now!
