Campus Drug I thinks young to attract Minneapolis students

Drug Store News, Feb 20, 1989

Campus Drug I thinks young to attract Minneapolis students

Students make up about 75 percent of the front-end business at Campus Drug I, located near the University of Minnesota in a section of downtown Minneapolis called Dinkytown.

The 3,000-square-foot store reflects its student orientation: The entire lower level, called "The Campus," is chockablock with sweatshirts and other collegiate-type apparel, plus toys and games (water pistols are popular), notions (especially shoelaces and dyes for tie-dyeing) and gifts, while the main level has large sections of housewares, small appliances, cosmetics and school supplies.

Bud Platt and his partner, Les Hackner, operate this store and Campus Drug II, a smaller unit located nearer to the university hospital and medical complex. Campus Drug I does about $1.3 million in yearly volume; the other unit's volume runs about $450,000.

Campus Drug I is abuzz with a steady stream of students, attracted by the wide assortment of desk lamps, backpacks and canvas brief-cases, clocks, hair driers and curling irons, calendars, greeting cards and hotpots. Platt said his biggest sellers include school supplies, toothpaste, shampoo, cough-cold products, lens care items and candy. Students generally prefer small product sizes, he added, because of their limited budgets and scant storage space.

The stores offer notary public and money order services, and hours are also geared to students' needs: 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. weekdays (the first classes start at 8:15 a.m.), and 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., respectively, on Saturdays and Sundays.

Because the university is on a 10-week quarterly system, the weeks before Christmas, when most drug stores are busiest, are among the quietest times for Campus Drug I and II. "Our |Christmas' is the end of September and early October," Platt said. He added, "Halloween is a big holiday for us," with makeup and masks for parties especially in demand. During the summer, the store stocks up on electric fans, chaise lounges and beach towels.

Campus Drug runs quarterly full-page ads in the university newspaper, The Minnesota Daily, plus ads at special times like Halloween and Valentine's Day, and an ad during each of the university's two summer sessions.

PHOTO : The lower level of Campus Drug I, near the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, is crammed with items for students' homes-away-from-home, from-home, such as tabletop ironing boards, bedding, dish towels, and, for recreation, water pistols and Nerf balls (left foreground).