Besides the cafeteria menu, Tiger’s Den, and outdoor bleachers, another new upgrade to one of the most popular areas in the entire building is the school store. Every day, whether it be during break in schedules or the small margin of time left before class, students gather at the school store to indulge in their favorite snacks. In the past, the school store offered a limited menu: energy drinks, bars, milk, bread, and chips. Now, the new upgrades provided a different branch to the menu: ramen.
Though it might seem simple—the quick, easy meal that every student has once resorted to during lazy afternoons—the new addition of instant ramen has surprisingly raised competition with another popular area of snacking: the snack shack, operated by the HSSC. In previous years, the snack shack had sold a variety of different snacks ranging from chips to ramen. Still, with new brands of snacks, including ramen, jellies, and chips, added to the school store, it is up to HSSC to overcome their competitors’ new menu with one of their own food upgrades.
“We noticed that the school store had new upgrades regarding the jellies and the ramen,” Woosung Choi (12), vice president of HSSC, said. “But HSSC always had to learn how to be creative with the menu choices, especially because people’s tastes and trends change every day. Now, we sell Korean corn dogs and food that we think people would like during the season. In the future, we will also keep coming up with new menu ideas to please the students’ opinions.”
Though members of HSSC may argue that the addition of the school store’s menu can make the snacks available at hand too common, the school store has simply followed the whims and opinions of the student body. Similar to HSSC, the school store accepted a multitude of different brands and snacks primarily because of the student body. The school store, in the past, was known for accommodating different opinions from the students to stand out from the rest of the sales happening around the school.
“I got kids telling me this and that and that they wanted so many kinds of foods added to the school store menu,” Ronald Ko, school store owner, said. “Some even come to me complaining, ‘Teacher, we are so hungry before lunch break, can we please have real food?’ prompting me to add ramen to the stock.”
However, why would students urge the school store to sell ramen when the snack shack has been selling ramen since the get-go?
In the past, HSSC had struggled to gain sales. Being only able to sell ramen during office hours has proved to be a setback compared to the school store, which sells its snacks and ramen all day round. Furthermore, with clubs selling ramen and onigiri during lunch periods in the past, and now with the school store selling a wider array of snacks and meals, it has been difficult for HSSC to make its menu stand out to the student body.
Knowing this, HSSC has resorted to a new plan: to outdo its competition.
Ranging from Korean corn dogs, dumplings, and frozen yogurt, HSSC has started the school year with a comeback of trendy foods to attract its fellow students.
“We will always change the menu according to what the people want,” Russell Jin (12), member of HSSC, said. “It is all dependent on where the students choose to buy their food from. Granted, being able to sell food all day round compared to selling food only during office hours can cause quite a big disparity in sales, but it is up to us, as literal members of the student body, to know what makes our grade interested in our snack shack.”
Though students snack at both the school store and the snack shack frequently, much is left unknown about the thoughtful decisions made behind the scenes. The school store and the snack shack may be seen as competitors, but in reality, the only goal that HSSC has in mind is to do what is in the interest of the students at SIS.
