Students not buying RRC memorabilia
Abbigail Guse, CONTRIBUTOR
Branded items fill the shelves at the RRC bookstore, but are students more interested in simply buying books required
for their program? THE PROJECTOR/ Abbigail Guse
Books aren’t the only things you can find in the Exchange District Campus bookstore at Red River College, but they make up many sales to students.
The bookstore is filled with RRC branded hoodies, cups, magnets, and binders. There are unbranded items too, like bath bombs, bracelets, earbuds and pads of paper, but how often do these items sell?
Florence Sposito works in the EDC bookstore. She says when students come in, they mostly buy books and supplies like staplers, paper and calculators.
“Most of the other sales, like hoodies and other branded things, are to parents and grandparents,” Sposito said. “Around the holidays and closer to graduation, we sell a lot more novelty items and unbranded merchandise.”
“I don’t think I’ve been inside the bookstore since I bought my textbooks,” said Matthew Sawatzky, a business information technology student at RRC. “I have everything I need, and I don’t want to spend extra money on a hoodie just because it has the college name on it.”
Sawatzky, 19, says when he has extra money, he doesn’t spend it at the store.
“I’m not going to pay for a cup with a logo on it when I have cups at home. Everything at the store is so expensive. It’s like they forget we’re all students, and we can’t afford half of that stuff, even when it’s on sale.”
Sposito says students come in for branded items closer to their graduation dates, and that most first-year students who come in to look at clothing with their program logos will come back later in their education to buy it.
“If I want a hoodie with the college logo on it, I’ll ask my parents to buy it for me as a gift,” Sawatzky said. “And I’m definitely waiting until I pass first year.”
