Initially started as a student enterprise in 1890 and formally established as a campus cooperative in 1905, the Princeton University Store (U-Store) is an iconic go-to place for the campus community and a prominent outlet for showcasing Princeton’s identity—perhaps embodied by its best-selling gift, the Einstein Tiger plush toy.
Vitus Larrieu / The Daily Princetonian
Operating from two main locations — one on campus near Blair Arch and another on Nassau Street — each address serves distinct purposes. The Nassau Street location focuses primarily on apparel and accessories, while the campus location offers a broader range of merchandise, including a smaller set of apparel, stationary items like notebooks and folders, and groceries and snacks. The Daily Princetonian analyzed sales data of the U-Store across both locations from the first quarter of the fiscal calendar, spanning from June 30 to September 28, 2024.
The top three departments with the biggest contributions to the U-Store’s total sales this quarter were Men’s Apparel, Grocery, and Women’s Apparel, and they accounted for 26 percent, 16.9 percent, and 14.4 percent of total sales, respectively.
When deciding which new items to merchandise, the U-Store develops personas for different groups of customers—namely for students, alumni, visitors, and the community at large—to define their tastes and preferences. They keep up with the market, whether it is through talking to vendors and manufacturers or trying products that companies want to try with them, to understand the Princeton community better.
“We look at how the consumer is responding to things that may be more what we call traditional in their design and look and feel,” U-Store President and CEO June Archer ’85 said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “And then we also want to be bringing in things that are more, what we would say, trend-based or contemporary because we have a lot of young people here, and they look for modern styling.”
“We have to be financially solvent,” she said. “So as much as we want to do all of the fun things, we have to be able to sustain the business so that we provide services for our members.”
While the U-Store is constantly working on introducing new products for the audiences, Archer recognizes a limitation, as with any other business.
“We’re constantly trying to make sure that those students that are on campus every day feel like we are a destination for their needs,” Archer said. “And the alumni, when they come to visit, we want to make certain that they are able to express themselves.”
Items in the U-Store are categorized into two main divisions: Insignia and Campus. The Insignia division focuses on Princeton-branded merchandise and includes Men’s Apparel, Women’s Apparel, Kid’s Apparel, Accessories, and Gifts. The Accessories category comprises items such as totes, magnets, and umbrellas, and the Gifts category includes novelty items like plush tigers and mugs. The Campus division provides practical and general items, Grocery includes food and beverage items, and General Merchandise features dorm essentials and everyday items like cleaning supplies.
The top three selling items by quantity during this quarter were all within the Campus Division — specifically the Grocery department — with bananas leading sales with 2,134 units sold, followed by Smart Water Sport (700 ml) with 1,180 sold and Smart Water (1L) with 968 sold.
“If you look at it unit-wise, we would definitely say that students are where we see so much activity because they’re in the campus store buying bananas and mango slices and other consumable products,” Archer said.
The quantity of Apparel sold was relatively small compared to items in other departments, as the top ten selling items in Men’s and Women’s Apparel categories sold only between 40 and 83 units each. However, each of these top ten items made over $2,100 in retail sales. This higher revenue came from the higher price point of apparel, which compensated for the lower sales volume.
Zhennan Zhao ’28 said that the U-Store is an integral part of the dorm life at Princeton.
“[The U-Store] provides a lot of necessities that students need—food, clothing, basic items that people need in their rooms,” Zhao said.
The convenience of the U-Store was cited as a possible reason for the top selling items being within the Grocery department.
“You could buy something on Amazon and have it shipped, and it would probably be cheaper, but it takes time to ship, time to process,” Zhao said. “The U-Store is relatively close.”
“I think it makes perfect sense considering how much people want to represent their school and also the pricing of the products,” Zhao said. “So when you have, let’s be honest, highly priced products and a lot of demand for them, it makes sense that a majority is going to be Insignia.”
“Our heavy-up sales are definitely going to be the alumni base because they are buying goods at a higher price, and those are the apparel and accessories items,” Archer said.
With regards to the total quantity of the top ten best-selling items by department, grocery led with 9,037 items, followed by gifts with 5586 items, and accessories with 4,091 items. This was a bit different than the total retail of the Top 10 best-selling items by department, as gifts led with $56,327.71, followed by accessories with $44,516.21 and general merchandise with $38.539.03.
The time of the year has an impact on which items sell more, as reflected by items in the General Merchandise department that topped the list for the past quarter—the top three items from a retail perspective were the Door Mirror, Pillow 100% Poly Fiber Fill, and the Princeton Planner 2024–25 with sales of $8,069.60, $4,920.01, and $3,927.61, respectively.
“The General Merchandise section in this particular quarter, because this has move-in data and [students] are just coming to school and getting settled, the closet items will always be best sellers,” Archer said.
A large part of the U-Store’s operations centers around working with the University on trademark licensing, as they need approval for using the intellectual property.
“[The trademark licensing team at the University is] responsible for approving or not approving everything,” Archer said. “So while we are certainly partnering with trademark licensing to bring them our thoughts, ideas, and desires to do whatever, there is a group of professionals who are ultimately responsible for maintaining the integrity of the marks and intellectual property.”
Princeton’s school spirit is ultimately what drives the U-Store’s business model, as insignia remains the core part of the U-Store’s business, accounting for 69.3 percent of the total sales this quarter, while the campus division accounted for the other 30.7 percent.
“There’s an emotion uniquely Princeton, and we are very fortunate. I mean, we wouldn’t have the business we have, and we would not be able to expand it if we didn’t have that spirit. And that is what the university’s gift to us is,” Archer said.
Andy Lau is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’
Hellen Luo is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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