The University Store at Murray State University recently rolled out the red carpet for the crème de la crème of its customers.
The store wrapped another successful VIP Prepackage Party, awarding students who package their textbook with the store. The University Store gave out prizes donated from vendors and offered 20 percent off items from donating businesses. In addition to prizes, the event also highlights the store’s services and builds familiarity among students.
“We do this event to thank the students for prepackaging with us, plus it’s a perk for them,” said Leisa Whitehead, Customer Service. “We pick a theme and set up games in each department of the store to help the students learn the departments and a familiar face within the department. At each game station there are prizes for game winners and we give out door prizes at least every 15 minutes.”
A popular closing ceremony to the annual event was the Ogio and Dakine Backpack scavenger hunt. Ten lucky students who win a drawing win a free backpack, inside of which are scavenger hunt clues to find items from each department in the store. Students were challenged to stuff the backpacks with the items in the clues, while keeping the bag’s total contents under $150 in value. After racing back to the cash register, the winner of the contest got to keep the items in their bag, in addition to the bag itself.
“This was our fourth year hosting this event,” Leisa said. “We have had great success with this event and have repeat students prepackage and attend the event. We started having this event as a way to say thank you to the students that prepackage with us. We also wanted to build a good rapport with the students and let them know we are here to help them any way we can as a way for us to give back.”
The store promotes the event as part of its prepackage promotions, and give each student a VIP Prepackage invitation along with reminder emails. They also use window advertising to help build excitement and familiarity with the event and everything it offers.
