UVM’s student run store accentuates the local
With shopping season in full swing many people are looking to their local economy for gift ideas.
Growing Vermont is a retail store on the UVM Campus. It’s also a non-conventional incubator for students and local entrepreneurial businesses. “They do everything from operations to invoicing to choosing what vendors they want to see in the store,” said Gwen Pokalo, the store’s manager.
Started by the Community Development and Applied Economic program in 2005, Growing Vermont is a public fully functioning store. Tara Bartlik has been working at the store for two years and now is their marketing manager. “They’re all Vermont, they’re all small Vermont entrepreneurs that are starting to get into the market and it’s completely student run, so that’s cool because now I get all the experience doing communications stuff and my major has nothing to do with that,” she said.
The student run store is just one part of their three part mission. They also help local artists that are just starting up, and promote the local movement. “Those vendors are new to the market in some way and we help them to experiment with their product that is somewhat protected by the university and we offer development services,” Pokalo said. That means everything from writing their business plan to working on a pricing strategy and packaging presentation.
