Volunteer Store Management

Overview

Our front store is a volunteer-run effort to provide snacks and useful consumables to members as a perk of membership. 

To be a volunteer for store management, you must:

1. Be able to lift a ~20lb case of soda up above shoulder height
2. Be able to transport a significant volume and weight of goods to the shop, from various locations (e.g. Sam's Club)
3. Be generally available to do a snack run within a few days of a request 

Volunteers receive:

• A company card with a $250 monthly budget for purchasing snacks and store goods (budget is shared amongst everyone)
• Creative leeway in stocking the store, within the requirements (below)
• Gratitude and appreciation of other hungry and thirsty members!

Store, Back Stock, and Inventory

Snacks are made available for purchase to the left of the front desk - specifically, on the wooden shelves and in the mini fridge.

Back stock is stored in lockers 9 and 10, just to the left of the doors when exiting the kitchen. The key for these lockers is located in the rolling cart to the side of the front desk.

Any goods that don't fit in the lockers should be stored in the custodial room, through the door at the rear of the jewelry area.  

We do not currently have a solution for taking inventory - when we're low on a couple of snacks, someone will send a message on the #techs or #maintenance channels on Discord. If you do not have access to either or both of these channels, notify the Shop Manager (Scott Martin) or Membership Coordinator (Camden Jennings) and they'll set something up for you.

Snack Runs

We do our bulk buys at Sam's Club in Monroeville, Costco in the waterfront distict, or potentially Restaurant Depot depending on which memberships we hold at any given time. Chat with Lizzee Solomon (on the Board of Directors) for direction.

Bulk buying is key - to ensure we aren't losing money, try to find snacks and drinks that cost less than $0.75 per unit. Remember to look for deals and sales!

Recommended purchase list:

• A diet and a non-diet soda

• LaCroix (very popular)

• Red Bull but only if it's on sale

• Small chips and granola bars

• Some kind of instant/cup noodle

Here are some items we've regularly stocked in the past:

• Pepsi 
• Diet Pepsi 
• La Croix (mix)
• Redbull (Regular and Sugar Free)
• Sunkist (Orange)
• Root Beer
• Mini Water Bottles
• Mac + Cheese Cups
• Ramen Noodle Cups
• Chips (mix)
• Granola Bars 
• Cookies/ Crackers (Ritz, Teddy Grahams, etc)

TODOs

If you have ideas, we're open to suggestions:

• How frequently to audit pricing?

• How often to do inventory?

• How to assess what doesn’t sell?