The Catty Shack reopens for the new school year
The popular school snack shop has reopened for the school year with a bigger menu
September 19, 2022
The Catty Shack is back in business, ready for the new school year. On Monday, Sept. 19 the wait for mid-day snacks finally ended.
News goals are in mind this year, according to business teacher Diana Heffernon. There are now more student favorites besides just Gatorade.
“[The Catty Shack] has a wider selection of food and beverage than we did last year,” Heffernon said.
This year the whole staff is new to running the Catty Shack. However, despite being new, everyone seems to be doing alright according to Catty Shack president senior Libby Strathman.
“[The staff] all work really well together and we do a lot of team building stuff,” Strathman said. “So everyone does their jobs really well.”
Even with all the new help, the preparation has been an extensive process that has already been in motion since last school year.
Last year, once the Catty Shack closed for the year, staff members liquidated the stock completely.
“We start a brand new company every year,” Heffernon said.
During the prior year, usually in May before school ends, the president and vice presidents are elected. There is only one president role which is currently occupied by Strathman, however there is a multitude of vice president roles, including vice presidents of marketing, finance, production and human resources, HR, and public relations, PR.
“Everybody has a position their job descriptions which they apply for” Heffernon said. “It’s set up like a business like we have corporate SMART goals, and we do a SWOT analysis. We have monthly departmental meetings.”
In order to become a staff member for the Catty Shack you must take business essentials which is a semester class and you must take the first year of marketing. Being a part of staff can seem like a time consuming process but, according to Strathman, the hours are not bad.
“We have seminar [that] is always spent with the Catty Shack” Strathman said. “And then the next block after that on silver days is also Catty Shack block.”
According to sophomore Shawn Njorge, the Catty Shack has a fairly good selection. Njorge wishes there was a slightly wider variety in snacks and drinks at the Catty Shack but, overall, he is pleased with the store.
“[The] Catty Shack selection is good. Maybe they could improve it a little bit, but it’s pretty decent”
Though the Catty Shack’s opening day was successful bringing in a great mass of students, Heffernon still has big goals for the future.
“[I] really wished that we had a real walk-in store that was bigger instead of kind of a little closet,” Heffernon said. “That’s kind of unfortunate, but hopefully in the near future that will happen. I think Dr. Holder is really on board with making that happen.”
