Naperville Central’s school store opened on Jan. 14 near the east side of the Cafeteria. 

The school store sells items such as sweatshirts, pants, hats, blankets and other school themed merchandise. The Booster Club, who runs the store, hopes to also offer t-shirts, visors, and baseball caps before the end of the school year.

The Boosters Club raises funds through merchandise sales and other fundraising opportunities to benefit various athletic needs at Central.

At the end of last school year, assistant Principal Merigan Neben had discussions with Booster Club president Joe Schrom and spirit wear committee chair Alissa Fitzgerald about reopening the school store in partnership with Central’s vocational program.

“I said, ‘Is there an opportunity to do something with the apparel part of the booster’s business that would give students the opportunity to have a store-work experience in Naperville Central that would still give us different opportunities for stocking and inventory,’” Neben said.

Learning behavior specialist Jennifer Jansen sees the school store as an opportunity for students in the vocational program to develop skills for jobs now and in the future.

“We have sorting and sizing opportunities for students,” Jansen said. “They all have shifts and they work and so they know to work on ‘this day’ and ‘this time.’”

The school store is currently open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during lunch periods and also provides the option for students to pre-order items online to pick up at the store. The store uses Square, which is a platform that lets customers pay with debit or credit cards or Apple Pay.

“If we see a lot of demand for this, it could be that we will increase how many days we’re open,” Neben said. “[…] I’ve wanted us to do a little bit more in terms of vocational preparation for students. I’m just excited that we have a new thing that allows us to target skills that our previous opportunities hadn’t looked out for.”