Day 41 - Students' Union retail businesses - June 26, 2013

Josh Le - Fri Oct 04, 2013

I set out part of my day to meet some of the SU business managers. Today was focused on the retail operations of the SU: SUBmart, SUBtitles, and the Postal Outlet. I've gained a deeper appreciation for the world of retail after my previous Co-op position at Walmart last summer. There are many good features about our retail operations, but there's still a lot of opportunity to grow and succeed. This will be a perfect area for the Business Advisory Group to analyze case studies to help the managers excel at growing the business. The Terms of Reference of BAG will be developed soon. Stay tuned if you want to be involved here or with other SU Businesses.One fun fact from each retail operation:

• SUBmart is my ultimate source of candy and snacks in SUB. It offers custom order merchandise for groups as well as embroidery and screen-printing! Maybe I'll make some more Josh Le Mug mugs here?

• SUBtitles consigns textbooks whereby the consignor receives 85% of the consignment price and SUBtitles levies a 15% commission. This is a great alternative provided by the Students' Union for book buy back options on campus. SUBtitles is the main reason why the U of A Bookstore started selling used textbooks.

• This Postal Outlet is the most profitable Postal Outlet in Northern Alberta and among the highest in Western Canada.

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