People, if you read my Burgh Bites food review column, you know that I am always on the search for the cheapest things Downtown, and well, the Point Park bookstore and merchandise store isn’t one of these places.
In my three years at Point Park, I have often considered writing an article about how I see more students wearing University of Pittsburgh merch or Penn State University merch than I see wearing our own school’s merchandise. I also know that when I was covering the Student Government Association beat in 2022, an issue they brought up was the lack of school spirit Point Park Students have for Point Park overall.
They attributed this to not having a football team. I attribute this to students not having affordable spirit wear. Although, compared to two years ago, I believe that our school spirit is way stronger than it was. Yet, the prices in the merchandise store need to be cheaper.
After a search on Point Park’s official spirit wear website, the cheapest hoodie I could find $39.98. At first, I became excited to let you all know that there is a single reasonably priced hoodie at the store for purchase, and then I realized that it is only for youth sizes.
The next cheapest option I found for hoodies was around $44.98 on the website, although it wasn’t an actual hoodie but instead a men’s fleece crewneck. The third cheapest option was $49.98. I found what I believe to be a plain version of this same hoodie listed online by Champion Teamware for only $21.99.
If you want the hoodie just to have Black Diamond’s face on it then it’s going to cost a student, Alumni or faculty member $69.89, and if you want to go all out to get the really nice yellow Point Park hoodie – which I personally want – it’s going to cost $79.98.
A third party, Barnes and Noble, operates both the bookstore and the spirit wear side.
In an interview with Marlin Collingwood, president of enrollment management, at the end of the Spring 2024 semester, he told me that as the Bison Book Bundle is implemented, the bookstore is going to lean away from selling physical books and this would open more opportunities for us to sell merchandise.
This is our opportunity, Point Park administrators. I know that the partnership we have with Barnes and Noble is not going to go away, especially with the new Bison Book Bundle, but maybe if the books are no longer being sold directly out of the physical store this is our opportunity to purchase our merchandise from another, cheaper company. Stop letting third parties sell our merchandise. This move is our opportunity to make the bookstore profitable for the school and more affordable for students.
It is my dream to one day walk around campus and see more students wearing the words Point Park on their chest rather than Pitt, Penn State, or see a kid on a sports team who is wearing merchandise only because it was given to them.