Kara is moving this year to become Director of a preschool and after school program in Westchester. She plans to open a new Student-Run Bookstore in her new school.
Schoolwide conducted an interview with Kara Lee Conroy, bookstore manager at PS 20Q. Not only did her bookstore just open for the first time this year and had made the most sales of all our bookstores (purchased approximately 6000-7000 books from us this year), but she is also a Math Coach!
Her store is called The Book Nook on Barclay. The name was selected from all of the classes that submitted entries for a naming contest before the store opened. The winning 2nd grade class received a pizza party.
They run their store during three lunch periods a week, with a staff of 15 students. They had such a high response by students interested in working at the store that they accepted applications for A/B weeks. The older children act as mentors for the younger students.
Hear how Kara has made her bookstore so successful, with answers to our questions:
Question: Do you conduct any special activities to promote your bookstore to the students or parents? If so, what?
Karaís Answer: We offer specials that vary from week to week. Some of them include:
- Giveaways
- Books that were donated (we were given over 250 Goosebumps Books from a parent)
- Small items like bookmarks and pencils
- A weekly Raffle
- Students that purchase books fill out a raffle ticket to enter to win their choice of prizes from our raffle bin. The 3 winning tickets are drawn live during morning announcements the day after the bookstore is open.
- Other contests
- We also have other contests occasionally. We just had a bookmark contest where students were asked to create bookmarks using any artistic method they choose. We received over 1,000 entries and the winning students from each grade, based on a panel of judges, received a pizza party where they were able to invite 5 friends from their class.
- Invite parents
- We also invite parents to visit during parent teacher conferences and other special evening school events which has had amazing success.
Question: What activities (focused on math or other curriculum areas) do you conduct with your student workers?
Karaís Answer: We have a small group of cashiers fro each one of the three lunch periods. The students are encouraged to ask customers to help to figure out their own cost. The books are color coded to reflect the three costs, yellow-$1 green-$2 and orange-$3. For example, the cashier may ask the student how much change they should get if they buy two green books and one orange book, checking the work of course!
We also have a quarterly newsletter which I have attached. Students act as book critics and then they type up their reviews to be included in the newsletter.
Question: Have you found any 1 particular thing that has been the secret to your successful store?
Karaís Answer: I think the biggest key to our success has been getting students excited about Thursdays! It helps that we only open one day a week because it gives the students time in between to save money and read the books purchased the week before. Also, we announce the bookstore and any specials that week (certain series may be buy two get one free) every Wednesday before our Thursday opening.
Kara has provided us with the secrets to running a successful story. We hope these ideas help fuel your enthusiasm and passion for the program, as well as provide new ideas. We know they did for us!
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