With construction happening often around Elizabethtown College’s campus, especially with the 125th anniversary celebrations, much work goes unnoticed by the campus community. To bring recognition to the continued effort to make the store a more ideal shopping experience, including an addition of a window and restructuring of the layout inside, the Etown College Store decided to hold a grand reopening event from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.on Sept. 26th. This event also aligned with the 125th anniversary and celebrating all things Etown, as the College Store, which originally used to be a post office, has changed looks a lot throughout the history of the college.
Although the College Store has been making changes for the past two years to make their store easier to shop in, the most recent and drastic changes occurred this fall. Construction in the College Store began in August with an aim to finish it before new students moved in, which became an additional challenge when a window pane broke on arrival.Carpentry and electrical employees also had to work harder to get it done on time, but through additional effort, they were able to accomplish it.
“I have to give a really big shout out to our carpentry guys and also electrical guys because the first step was removing the old window, moving our slat wall down, then leaving this space open and framing it out for the new windows,” College Store Manager Amy McEvoy said. “So at that point, we were very close to the beginning of school and they worked hard to get them back here for the start of school so that when freshmen moved in it was ready to go.”
The store also collaborated with people off campus as McEvoy worked with the Vera Bradley store in the Park City Center, who gave them fixtures to use at the store to give a similar mall experience to the college store.
The grand reopening of the College Store had a variety of activities for students to engage in as they pursued the new version of the store. They had catering outside the store to draw people in. Inside the store, they also had raffles that were announced every 30 minutes that included prizes of merchandise, coupons and a gift certificate to the College Store, all without purchase needed. Students also had the opportunity to sign up with a loyalty program associated with the store that rewards students for their purchases. Lastly, students could vote for the next “Life is Good” shirt among four designs, with the most popular one becoming the next design.
Students also were encouraged to peruse the store and look at new merchandise as the grand reopening went on.
“I think the reopening is very nice and welcoming, and I’m really excited for all the new products,” sophomore Aya Zour said.
Looking past the grand reopening, the College Store hopes to continue having events that can draw in student support and awareness of the various seasonal drops of merchandise. Late night events seem to be an important part of this as students can pursue merch during their evenings.
“This year, one of my goals is to have a night at least once a month of late-night shopping with some fun event,” McEvoy said.” Obviously, this [the grand re-opening] kicks it off. This will be our first one in September, but I hope to expand that to do something every month. We are trying to increase student involvement as far as their likes, preferences, what they like to see here in the dance. Last year the Emotion dancers did a video to Thriller in our Halloween shirts, so I’m hoping to do another joint effort with them as well.”For those interested in staying updated with all that is happening at the College Store including events, collaborations and new merchandise, they post updates on Instagram through @etowncollege and are typically open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
