By Mario Anderson

Being one of the few schools, if not the only in the area, with a full store within the building of the high school, Grandville has something special within The Dog Den. A classroom that works as a store is a brilliant idea. For being only four years old, the Dog Den has done a lot already, not only for GHS, but the surrounding community. Within the high school, the store provides experience for students to learn everything from calculating profits, to managing inventory. These skills learned can be all the knowledge needed to start someone’s entrepreneur life. 

Leesa Burrill, the Supervisor of The Dog Den, said, “In the first year of the store being open, we made $76,000. The following year we made almost $96,000. Last year we fell slightly short because of the opening of the online version of the store.” So where does that money go? It has to go somewhere right? None of the money made from merchandise at the Dog Den go into any individual’s pockets. Instead, the money made goes back into the store for better quality clothing and merchandise, more designs, and overall improvements all around the store.

The Dog Den has some other pieces to it that many don’t really understand. The most unknown being the fact that the clothes featured in the store are designed by students at GHS. No other store has the exclusive apparel presented in the Dog Den because the clothes are literally made by students for students. The process takes time like anything, so items sold as of the fall of 2019 were designed by the senior class of 2019, and the clothes that will be in cycle later in the spring will be from the class of 2020. Most of the work that goes into the store seems to go unnoticed for some reason. 

“There’s an online Dog Den? Since when?” Being fairly new, it would be understood that people wouldn’t know about it. However, this still brings up questions as to why people haven’t heard about the online store yet. Sure it’s pretty new but, it was created in the middle of the 2018-2019 school year, so students have had plenty of time to at least hear about it. Some would say it could be due to advertising during school hours, however this may not be the only reason for the lack of students who know about the online store. Could making shopping easier during the evening and possibly showing merchandise on the GHS Announcements reach more shoppers? Maybe if GHS was more aware of the items for sale, promotions and prices, more people would be aware of and shop in the online store.