At a glance, the school’s new Career and Technical Education (CTE) building seems to only benefit students taking CTE classes like culinary arts or TV productions.

However, instead of keeping the new building to themselves, the business marketing club, DECA, plans to open a new student store available for the whole school.

Introducing the Puma Den, Perry’s new student-run store. Similar to businesses outside of school, this school store is its own business. The Puma Den will be managed specifically by DECA students.

“Students in the class [will] learn inventory as well as money handling, product controls, customer service,” DECA Advisor Rob Lange stated, “basically all the soft skills you need to work in a business outside of school.”

“It’ll be great to see the kids taking what they’re learning in the classroom then applying it to all of you” assistant principal Heather Patterson said. “That’ll be awesome to see what the kids generate, how they market things, [and] how they try to sell things to everybody.”

Senior Bari Richardson, the DECA president, is excited for the new store as well.

“I’m really excited to see DECA students shine in their area as [a] student based enterprise,” Richardson said.

“It’s all about bettering student’s experience here at Perry.”

The new school store will provide a variety of food and drink options including items similar to the cafeteria. As far as prices go, the club understands that students and staff want cheap items; however, the exact prices are still unknown.

Lange explained, “Part of a business is making money and covering your overhead.” All of the money earned in the school store will go back to help DECA students with competition fees and if enough money is earned, a scholarship will be offered.

Another benefit the store will offer is the option to use credit cards. Students and staff will be able to purchase products via cash or credit cards with the new equipment in the store.

The goal is to open the store as soon as possible; DECA is still ironing out issues with vendor approval by the school district. There are high hopes that the store will open this semester, however for sure it will open next semester. A soft opening will first take place allowing only staff and teachers access to the store for about a week. This will allow students to fix any problems before opening to the whole school.

Remember feeling left out because you couldn’t use the CTE building? Well now you can. Be sure to check them out soon.