DECA Store updates bring new products

By Thomas South and Kane McDaniel

For years, the DECA store has sold drinks, made-to-order coffee and snacks to students. This year, DECA plans to update its store with new equipment. 

Becky Dougherty, who runs the DECA program at Liberty hopes the new equipment will bring in more funding for the program. “Not everybody likes Frappuccinos but almost everybody likes slushies. Our plan is to do a slushie of the week. When we get our new machines, they'll be double [Two flavors in one machine]. So we'll probably take a poll. Whatever the most popular flavor is, that'll just be consistent. And then our plan is to do a slushie of the week as the other flavor.”

Unfortunately, the slushie machine will not be ready for opening. “This is grant-funded and so it depends on when they release those funds. [It] should probably be October [or] November. My goal is to have it before this semester’s out.”

“30 to 40 percent profit would be ideal. The machine itself was paid for by the grant,” Dougherty continues, “So we don't have to recoup that but it will depend on how much everything costs. So, our cups are straws, our Lids, our slushie mixes, we always want to have a little bit extra.” 

The fundings is important to provide more experience to DECA students and new products for liberty students. “The money we make during school hours goes back into the store. So it [pays] to stock the store, to upgrade the store, it goes to hopefully offer new things.”

One of the things that Dougherty hopes to offer in the future is liberty merch. “As a whole our goal this year is to start selling Liberty merch. So t-shirts, maybe hats, beanies, something like that. My long-term goal is that we get our own screen print and we will run a screen printing business out of the DECA store.”

As part of being a CTE class, DECA students need to be workplace-ready. Dougherty believes that all students will have enough experience from her class they can go directly to work at any coffee shop job or restaurant and do well.

In terms of employee training, Dougherty said the new machines wouldn't require much extra, “I still think Frappuccinos and lattes are going to be significantly more steps involved. Because for the most part [making slushies], you just put the mix in and whatever it requires, and then they just pull the lever.”

DECA isn't just about selling coffee and slushies though, as the DECA program as a whole focuses more on competitions. DECA competitions help students better their knowledge of business, accounting and hospitality. 

In addition, all money earned from the DECA store after hours, like at sports games or other school events goes towards providing scholarships to help students make it further in competition.