“Holiday pen on sale for 50 cents! There’s only one left!”

As third graders filter into Ashley Hall’s Student Store, four primed-and-ready fourth grade students are ready to help them shop. Located on campus outside the Dining Commons, the Ashley Hall Student Store is stocked with small trinkets like pens, notepads, stickers, and more, and it’s entirely student-run. 

“We are in after-school Math Magicians which is how you get to work here,” says Caitlin Oliver ’31. Led by Lower School Math Specialist Allison Jordan, Math Magicians is made up of students in grades 4-6 who began working last semester to re-open the Student Store which had been closed since the pandemic. Club members come up with a staff schedule, work with a budget to order products to sell, and run the store during planned times. 

Student Store hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after Lower School and IP lunch periods. Items range from 50 cents to $3 with the exception of AH bears for $20 and AH puzzles for $10. When on store duty, the girls alternate jobs. “Someone is doing the money and counting everyone’s change, then sometimes I bag because I know what everything costs,” says Erin Brennan ’31. “Then someone is outside doing crowd control.” 

Yes, crowd control. By 11:30 a.m. Lower School students are flooding by the dozen down the Dining Commons steps to be the first in line for their chance to shop. During their grand re-opening in December, the girls made a whopping $400 in a single day. Now they are in a groove and averaging around $200 each time they open their doors after lunch.

So where does all that money go?

“At the end of the semester, we count up all the money after school,” says Quincy Bagg ’31. “Then we pay back what we used to buy our products, and the rest goes to the Loyalty Fund. A lot of people ask us if we get paid or get discounts,” adds Bagg who usually works as cashier. “We just do it for fun though. I just like to add everything up, and I really like math.”