Every day students walk into the doors of West Salem High School, they walk past the door to The Panther Plaza. The school store is open every school day before and after. The Panther Plaza is a business that is 99% of the time run by the students that take Retail Operations and Management, but also is run by Business teacher Nicole Hinkel. The Retail Operations and Management class gives students a chance to learn how to run a business, how to create a clothing product, and to give them an idea on how to manage cleaning and organizing all of the merchandise. It’s also something that a student can add to their job resume!
As of May 13th, 2026 there have been many new clothing items added in made by the students of the 2025-2026 school year. Shoppers can see many new crewnecks, t-shirts, and cups. Hinkel says, “The hardest part of teaching retail is that I feel like I need to clone myself – there are always a lot of questions when we first start the process and it’s hard to get around to everyone during the class period.”
There are many steps needed before adding a product into a business. One major step is setting the price. “We plan mark-ups based on the clothing item and the shipping cost…making a little more to pay off the items that are still in the store that might not sell until the next school year. With clothing prices increasing we really try to make it affordable for students to be able to purchase items in the school store,” said Hinkel.
Every school year, new products get added in. Whether it’s during the first or second semester, it’s always going to be rotated out once something new is created. So before an item is replaced, go and support a company run by its students. All the money made goes right back into the store, meaning that the tradition of it being open will stick around for many years to come.