Flock Stop, the 24/7 on-campus convenience store, is seeing record-breaking sales every year, according to area retail manager Jill Nothstein. As a result, Flock Stop representatives will propose to the board this year that the organization, based in the Student Life Centre (SLC), obtain more space, either through renovations or moving to a larger location.
“We have definitely outgrown [it] because we continue to grow year over year over year,” Nothstein said. “We’re only 750 square feet, and when you have 2,000 people coming through your door every single day … it’s very, very tiny.”
On average, Flock Stop conducts between 1,600 to 1,800 transactions daily. This number has gone up to 2,100 on some days, and the store is particularly busy in the fall. Some of the highest selling products are beverages, such as coffee, energy drinks, and soda. Other top sellers include sushi (which is made fresh daily by trained chefs) and Jamaican patties.
The store also offers Dippin’ Dots, ICEEs, cookie dough, wraps, sandwiches, salads, chocolate bars, and more.
“It’s grown in sales and popularity,” Nothstein said. “I think a lot of that is due to us being open 24 hours, seven days a week. We do quite a bit of sales at night — once all the other eateries in the SLC close, we are the only thing open.”
There is typically a rush of customers at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., then a steady stream of students coming in throughout the night. “During the day, [there’s] the wait between classes. At night, I find there is a more consistent trickle,” Nothstein said. “It also depends on sporting or club events that are happening… we’re definitely a lot busier during exams.”
There are 25 to 30 staff that keep Flock Stop running smoothly — this is made up of UW students and three permanent staff members. Five of the students are co-op students, for whom it is a full-time position, working about 35 hours per week. Two co-op students also work as daytime shift coordinators, two are night shift managers, while the remaining co-op student acts as an evening shift coordinator.
One of the co-op employees is Mya Santo, a second-year UW student studying English language and literature. She recently started the position around Jan. 8, and hopes to continue working at Flock Stop past the co-op end date of May 3.
Her night shifts often run from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekends, and 10:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. on weekdays. “I’ve been calling it my vampire schedule,” Santo said with a laugh. Part of her role involves interacting with customers, stocking the store, and cleaning up.
The foot traffic on nights can vary significantly — Santo noted it was particularly slow during reading week in mid February. “For the most part, it’s one or two people every hour, then occasionally big study groups come in,” she said, adding it typically clears out between 4:30 to 5 a.m.
There are often regular customers that come in throughout the night shifts. “I’ve noticed that computer science and engineering students really are night owls to a tee, all the time,” Santo said.
“It’s cool connecting with the university community in that undercurrent way, like seeing what’s going on in the nighttime. For the most part, people just want their energy drinks, and to get out and go back to studying, which is cool. And some people like to hang around and talk for a bit, [or] want opinions on chocolate bars.”
Santo has past experience working at Tim Horton’s and Food Basics, and said working at Flock Stop feels like a blend of the two.
In addition to co-op students, there are also 10 to 15 part-time student staff members, depending on the term. Nothstein said that the growth of Flock Stop has allowed for increased staff salaries.
“We’re able to start our staff out above minimum wage — it’s typical in retail that you have minimum wage… but we’re able to do more than that,” Nothstein said.
As revenue increases for Flock Stop, so do the costs, which include hiring more staff members, paying competitive wages and upgrading equipment, such as new coolers.
The store turns about 20,000 stock-keeping units a week. Permanent staff members handle ordering, receiving, rotating and invoicing of weekly deliveries of various products, including dairy, Pepsi, Coke, ICEE, and more.
Other responsibilities of permanent staff include staff management (such as training new co-op students), administrative work, and signage. They also need to ensure equipment is maintained and the store is clean to keep things running smoothly. “There is a lot that goes into running this little business,” Nothstein said.
While Flock Stop operates 24/7 and is open for business most days of the year, the shop closes during winter break for about one week and reopens after New Year’s Day. The only other time it closes is if maintenance is being conducted, either in the store or the SLC.
Nothstein took over managing the store in August 2021. “When I first started [at] Flock Stop, it was not easy managing a 24/7,” Nothstein said. “Many things happened overnight such as equipment failure, POS system issues, and staff call- ins. These things would happen in the evenings as well.”
She came up with better onboarding procedures, so that overnight and evening staff had the tools needed to troubleshoot issues when they came up. In addition, part-time staff were no longer hired for overnight shifts, but instead, two co-op positions were created instead. This was done to allow student staff to adjust to the overnight schedule and focus solely on managing the store, as opposed to having to juggle classes on top of that.
“We have very bright, hard-working students. They know how to problem-solve very well. So having these tools at their disposal, they can solve most issues on their own,” Nothstein said. “It was many of our past co-op coordinators [who] assisted me with writing these procedures. This store has truly been built by students.”
Flock Stop has seen several iterations over the years. It used to be called Aussie’s Down Under, with limited daytime hours (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.), offering snacks and a postal service to students. Later, it moved to its current location and became Federation Express.
In 2012, it became the franchise International News, eventually extending the hours to 24/7. In 2022, the International News contract ended, and it is now known as Flock Stop, independently owned and operated by WUSA.
Since the organization is run by WUSA, it is not-for-profit. “Anything we do make as sales continue to grow, we give back to our student body,” Nothstein said.
For example, Flock Stop offers consistent pricing deals to students — for this past Valentine’s Day, they offered a 25 per cent deal on red velvet cookie dough, and in early February, there was 25 per cent off two warm entrees (the spicy jerk chicken rice and butter paneer with rice).
There have also been contests for students to win larger items, such as an Apple Watch giveaway (which ran from Feb. 19 to Mar. 1) and a Red Bull mini fridge (which ran from Jan. 17 to Jan. 31). Nothstein said Flock Stop has worked hard to grow its Instagram audience as a way to communicate with students about these deals.
Looking to the future, Nothstein plans to conduct research on what students would like to see at Flock Stop (such as groceries, health and beauty products, etc.) through surveys and interviews, then work to incorporate those items into the store.
