New, popular products offered at Cardinal Corner

By Kassondra Burtis

News Editor

New items at the student-run Cardinal Corner are giving students a great opportunity to show their Cardinal pride.

This semester, there are two brand-new items occupying the store’s shelves, as well as two more products that have been popular items in recent semesters.

One of the new featured products is a red blanket with the words “Cardinal Pride” embossed into the fabric. The other new product is a t-shirt featuring Campus Safety’s Don Nelson.

Back by popular demand are the white Father Fabian “The Legend” shirts, as well as the navy blue Andy Warhol-inspired shirts with Brother Stephen’s face on the front.

The Cardinal Corner is a student-run store operated by the Entrepreneurship class instructed by Jana Craft.

“The students in the MG315 class are broken up into four groups of four to five people, and they are tasked with deciding on a product to sell in the store,” Craft said. “They have to market it, track the inventory, report on the financials, strategy for selling, etc.

“Mainly, though, it gives them the opportunity to see that it’s not easy to control everything about a business. Not everyone flocks to your store the moment you open the doors.”

Each semester, the profits from the Cardinal Corner are donated to a charity of the class’s choosing, including all profits “from new items as well as existing items from previous semesters that do not belong to club, sports or teams,” said Craft. This semester, the proceeds will go to the Taylor Richmond Benefit Dance recipient, Josh Misiewicz, a former SMU student and U.S. soldier who was wounded in Afghanistan.

Andrea Moore, a student in Craft’s Entrepreneurship class, said that the students in the class aim to provide products that people can’t buy anywhere else.

“[We] wanted a product that would sell and was unique,” Moore said. “The Father Fabian and Brother Stephen t-shirts are hot sellers so we are piggy-backing off the popularity of honoring a faculty with our ‘Security…Don!’ t-shirts.”

Moore believes that the experience of running the store gives students a first look into what really goes into running a business.

“Not everyone has previous experience selling or working on things that go on behind the scenes before a product reaches the store,” Moore said. “I think running the Cardinal Corner lets us see that there is a lot of work that does happen before anyone realizes any profit.”