The Blazer Stop returned on October 4, near the main gym, with their new product coffee including frappuccinos. The Blazer Stop will be opened during lunch hours and smoothies and coffee will be available for students to purchase. 

“Typically we will be open till May. We opened in the first week of October and we will be open till May,” Shawna Cole, the advisor said. 

The Stop sells coffee between 7:30 and 7:55 near the main gym. They sell frappuccinos, iced coffees, and hot chocolates. On October 4, there were only two people running the stop and a very long line. Since they can’t be late for class, Mrs. Cole had to tell everyone to leave.

“We had 25 minutes. We sold about 15 frappuccinos, nine iced coffees, and five hot chocolates,” Cole said. “There was a very long line at 7:55, but I had to tell everyone to go to class because they can’t be late. We realized that we need to have more than two people at a time working to get through people faster.” 

The Stop is run by Cole’s Marketing class. Running the stop helps them get experience for any business practices in the future. 

“They are going to come up with their own business plan at the beginning of the year. They assign jobs and roles. They do advertising, come up with new products they’re going to sell. They found their recipes, they all have to be approved by the school. So that’s why it didn’t open until October, and so they have only sold coffee once and smoothies once this past week,” Cole said. “So it’s a very big learning curve. So they will be doing that for the next month. Trying to, you know during class, they’re figuring out what they need to do better. How do we change things, what products we need to get things like that.”

The team has come up with new promotions. For example, there will be an upcoming one for fall, and one for special holiday treats like valentines day and others that will be announced when the time comes. 

“We have talked about a fall promotion with cookies and apple cider. The cookies with the special valentine’s message we did last year were successful, so we’re considering doing something like that, or even chocolate-covered strawberries again,” Piper Warren, manager of operations, said. 

Cole will be gone for a few months for maternity leave. The temporary head will be a long-term sub who has ample experience in the field of business. 

“We’re very nervous, but our long-term sub worked in the business for a long time, “Warren said.  “She’s an entrepreneur and has owned her own businesses, so we are in good hands and we have started setting up plans as to how we’re going to manage ourselves in her absence. I think it’s a scary thing to think about, but our staff is confident that we will succeed.” 

The Blazer Stop will serve for the rest of the school year. The team will work together to improve The Blazer Stop and its products. 

“I love our student team this year. I think that we’re really responsible. We’re really on track and we want the stop to succeed in general. Mrs. Cole is always there to support us and I love having her as my teacher,” Warren said.  “And the stop in general, you know, I did have to sacrifice a lot of classes to be in that and I’m very glad I did because like I said, it’s a great experience and I get along with the people in there.”