From colourful cups to a caring crew: How to run a tuck shop

It’s six in the morning, the sun is barely up and Carla Cronje is already at work prepping for another day of meals, snacks and a legion of kids and sometimes parents at the tuck shop she runs.

“It’s the best job I have ever had, even though at the end of each day I am exhausted,” Cronje said.

It’s a 12-hour gig from the get-go. Sometimes six days a week when there are sports or cultural events at the school.

Prepare to work long hours

Running a tuck shop is not as straightforward as it sounds.

It’s a full-time commitment with extra time added on gratis.

“When tuck shuts at four in the afternoon, I’m off to do shopping for fresh stock, like tomatoes and cucumbers and bread before heading home,” she said.

Then it’s still chores at home and cooking, again.

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It’s a crazy schedule but, said Cronje, it’s far from a “thankless job. Instead, she finds joy daily in seeing the children’s faces light up when it’s tuck time.

Whereas a normal office job might include a healthy dollop of politics, corner office races, and water cooler gossip, the challenges are somewhat different when your customers are barely tall enough to look over the counter.

“It tests my patience a little bit, sometimes,” she said, jokingly.

“You’ve got these little four and five-year-olds staring at this big selection of stuff, not knowing what they want.”

Get colourful

And stocking what kids like to eat and drink is a poser of another kind.

Cronje said she has learned that success in the tuck shop business is often about understanding ever-changing preferences.

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“It’s trial and error,” she said.

Some items she thought would be hits turned out to be duds, while others unexpectedly became bestsellers.

One surprising discovery was that kids are drawn to visual appeal beyond just the bright packaging of candies.

“I started selling slush puppies in polystyrene cups, but when I switched to plastic cups and the colours were more visible, the sales went up,” she said.

“Kids are really very visual, they love things with lots of colour.”

Find an opening

Before setting up shop at the school, Cronje’s career was vastly different.

“I was working at a company that sold raw materials for cosmetic purposes,” she said.

However, like so many in recent years, she found herself needing to pivot when the job came to an end.

The big R for retrenchment was somewhat unexpected. Cronje said because the family lost her chunk of income and she did not want to work for someone else again, she invested in a mobile coffee trailer.

Markets, events and festivals became her revenue stream and it went very well.

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Make an impact

The opportunity to run the tuck shop came almost by accident.

Cronje said a friend was supposed to sell coffee at a school sports day, but due to a conflict of interest, she was asked to step in, instead.

Initially, she was sceptical, thinking: “Who’s going to buy coffee when there are only 100 kids at the school?” But the day turned out to be a success.

The school director loved Cronje’s coffee and milkshakes so much that she invited her to take things further.

“I don’t know what made me say it, but I asked her how she’d feel about me selling coffee in the parking lot to the parents before school,” Cronje said.

To her surprise, the school was open to the idea and from there the tuck shop became the next step.

Get a team

A couple of years later the school has grown from 100 to almost 500 pupils and, along with it, the success of Cronje’s business.

“I now have two permanent staff members and three part-time workers, who come in for busier days, like during school functions and concerts,” she said.

Managing a team, keeping the shelves stocked and balancing the needs of both children and parents keep her on her toes.

“There’s always something to do, and so much of it,” she said.

Whether it’s cleaning, stocking or attending to special requests from teachers who need their caffeine fix, her days are varied and different.

“I would never manage this on my own. My staff are the amazing people who make this ship sail smoothly,” she added.

Be kind

But there is also a sobering side; a sign of the times.

Cronje said the assumption that attending a private school means every child is financially well off is a myth.

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“Everybody thinks because it’s a private school all the kids are okay, but that’s not always the case,” she said.

“Some kids come to the tuck shop with only R20 and you can see the difference between the kids.

“It really gets to me sometimes and while both I and the school do a lot behind the scenes to help, it’s tough for some families.”

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